National award-winning director Habib Faisal’s latest romance Daawat-e-Ishq (‘Feast Of Love’) doesn’t rely on tawdry item numbers to grab attention. Instead, his bait “to seduce his audience” is biryanis and delectable shahi tukdas, an Indian bread pudding.
“Directors spend time auditioning actors, I spent lots of time auditioning food … At one point, I was so engrossed in the food shots that my actors had to remind me to pay attention to them too,” said Faisal with a laugh.
For this director, who made engaging films such as Do Dhooni Chaar and love tragedy Ishaqzaade, going down the “fake food route” wasn’t an option. He compares Daawat-e-Ishq, produced by Yash Raj Films, to a pot of delectable biryani.
“The film has been primarily shot in Lucknow and Hyderabad, but we had some scenes to be shot in a Mumbai studio. But we realised that there was a limited choice of eateries in Mumbai that do Mughlai food. So we would get biryani from many restaurants at once and check if the rice had the same colour as a Lucknowi biryani and whether the basmati rice was of the right size. Just like biryani, our movie has different layers that will engage the audience.”
Daawat-e-Ishq, out in the UAE this Thursday, stars Bollywood’s oft-described sunshine girl Parineeti Chopra, who plays Gulrez Qadir, and heartthrob Aditya Roy Kapur, who plays Tareq, the colourful chef.
Social message
“It has two hours of positivity and from what I know, two hours of happiness won’t kill anybody,” said Chopra, who was nursing a throat infection at the time of this interview. But beneath the layer of frolic and fun, there’s an important social message too.
“Daawat-e-Ishq [DEI] is a father and a daughter’s fight against the dowry demons. You should also watch the film to find a young role model in Tareq Haider. Perhaps, Gulrez and Tareq may help young men and women to tackle the issue of dowry in a similar manner. If that happens, it will be a great pay-off for me,” said Fasial, who made a gripping love story set against the backdrop of communalism in Ishaqzaaade and highlighted India’s debilitating consumerism in Do Dhooni Chaar.
The seed of DEI came about when the director read an article about a woman who used an Indian law against dowry to bring down men who demanded it. But Faisal claims he doesn’t want to preach to the converts.
“There’s no point in talking to converts who resist dowry like me. We are on the same page. But I want to engage a large number of people in a language and idiom that they are comfortable with. If I am making an art house film, it has limited dialogue. My Do Dhooni Chaar had so many songs and it employed commercial tools of casting like Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh to speak about a relevant social issue.”
While the director is intent on driving home the social message against dowry, his actors were excited about being a part of a food film.
Foodie films
“Very few food films like Cheeni Kum and The Lunchbox have been made. Aditya and me fall in love while eating together. It makes sense because Indians love food,” said Chopra. So, did she eat all the food on her plate?
“Come on, no pretending for me. I am a very dedicated actress. The way I look at it was if I have to eat in a scene, I eat the food. My weight gain can be taken care of in other ways like increasing [my] workout,” said Chopra.
Her on-screen lover, Kapur, has just one piece of advice. “Even if you are on a diet, please don’t resist watching Daawat-e-Ishq. It’s worth drooling over.”
