Kurkure – Why so sweet?

I first met with Dibakar (or Dibokor as it’s correctly pronounced) Banerjee in a 100 year old building. Light poured in from tall, open windows, into a high ceilinged room, filtering through a cloud of classic mild smoke that hung above our heads.  ‘This was a church previously,’ he said wistfully. ‘Built by Jesuit evangelists, in commemoration of the victims of the 1st World War. I chose it as my office because of its ecclesiastical architecture,’

Two weeks from that moment the Director of films like Khosla ka Ghosla, Love sex aur Dhokha and Detective Byomkesh Bakshi would embark on his first T.V commercial with Sniper.

Harrowing as shoots involving celebrities are, Dibakar and Sniper galumphed along precariously at first, getting acquainted with each other’s working styles. It was Parineeti Chopra’s weight, or rather weight loss, that became the most discussed topic on sets, especially by the female members of JWT Delhi and Sniper. She was no longer known only as Priyanka Chopra’s cousin. As we waded through the measly hours allotted each day by the celebrities, Parineeti was met with incredulity, disbelief and envy.

The kurkure scripts were region specific, an aspect we decided to incorporate into the catering. Therefore it was butter chicken and Dal Makhni for lunch on the North film shoot, while the infamous Muthuswamy plied us with Tuppa dosas, idli-appams, mulgapodi, and Bisibele bhath on the sets of the South film. But it was the west (or bhest as most Bengalis say it) Bengali Ghoti meal of Cholar Dal, Maccher jhol, Shukto, Aloo poshto, begun bhaaja, Motton Kasha that had everyone’s attention on the sets of the East film. Fellow Producers Kareena (a staunch vodkaterian) and Alisha gingerly made their way through this hitherto alien cuisine, even going as far as to brave a small bite of the creamy, custard-like Begun bhaja. In hindsight Bengali catering turned out to be a gamble as we learnt Dibakar – who considers himself more of a Dilli jaat (his words)  than a robindro-quoting sophisticate from Ballygunge  – preferred continental cuisine. ‘You see, I grew up in the Mhada of Delhi,’ he said to me as he called it a wrap.

Director: Dibakar Banerjee

Produced by: Roopak Saluja, Chahna Rupani & Siddharth Kelkar