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Feeding the film: Bollywood through the eyes of film caterers

A pivotal part of any film unit, film caterers are little heard about and little thought of. Roshni Nair talks to old-timers who have been feeding Bollywood for decades and have the inside track of what is palatable and what is not

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Lakhan Lal Yadav with Rekha and Navin Nischol (during Jaan Se Pyaara).
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Raaj Kumar wasn't a hard man to feed. The debonair actor usually stuck to kali dal, mushroom-matar and phulkas. He had a weakness for the holy trinity of halwas: gajar ka halwa, moong dal halwa and doodhi halwa. Not that he'd insist on having dessert after every meal.

If there was anything he insisted on, it was having only fluffy and piping hot phulkas on his plate, and food cooked in pure ghee. No compromise would be stomached for these two conditions.. But one day, Ramu, the head cook for Lakhan Yadav's RR Caterers, didn't meet the star's expectations of the flawless phulka during the Manali schedule of Subhash Ghai's Saudagar.

"Raajsaab was furious. He told Ramu, 'Yeh roti hamare kutte bhi nahi khaayenge!'," remembers Lakhan Yadav.

The situation was salvaged only when Yadav intervened and whipped up the actor's favourite foods.

As for Ramu – he went from being a rookie to personal cook for the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty. After the debacle with Raaj Kumar, he gradually redeemed himself by making khaana just how the actor wanted. "Things became alright the moment he called me 'Jaani'," smiles Ramu.

Unlike their glitzier showbiz counterparts, film caterers aren't the cynosure of all eyes despite they, too, being in a cutthroat profession. They brave 17-19 hour days, irregular payments and job instability to feed the film. Like many acting hopefuls who churn out audition after audition in the hope of getting noticed, film caterers look for that one break to hit the big league.

Ramu's break came when Lakhan Yadav entrusted him to cook 'healthy food' for Sunny Deol, at a time when the 'no oil, no fat' craze conquered the film industry. And it didn't take long for word to spread about Ramu's fare.
His specialty is all things baked and grilled: grilled fish, grilled chicken, and anything that would make its way in a satvik diet. "No salt, no fat, no masala, no rice, no sweets. No this, no that. I can't have such food. But I'm not the one who needs to watch what I eat," he guffaws.

His name is Lakhan
Lakhan Yadav's life is no less dramatic than a Manmohan Desai or Prakash Mehra film. He came to Bombay from Saak (Jharkhand) 37 years ago, putting everything at stake to be part of the film industry. "I was even willing to wash dishes or become a sweeper on sets," he says. "I spent many nights under a mango tree outside Dharmendra's bungalow."

Yadav's grit ultimately paid off when he struck a rapport with Dharmendra's staff – his drivers, domestic help, even his security. Actors – leave alone entourages – were more accessible back then. And in Yadav's case, his hometown was a determining factor. "Dharamji ke secretary Saak se the. Meri kismat achchi thi."

The turnaround was when Yadav got wind of an opportunity many would vie for: that of Dharmendra's personal cook. In the years after, he also cooked for Navin Nischol. It was on the sets of Nischol's 1970 film Yadav got wind of an opportunity many would vie for: that of Dharmendra's personal cook. In the years after, he also cooked for Navin Nischol. It was on the sets of Nischol's 1970 film Jaan Se Pyaara (never released) that Yadav went from being a star bawarchi to full-time film caterer, bagging film after film to earn enough and establish RR Caterers in 1985. His clients included Shyam Benegal, Raaj Kumar Santoshi and Subhash Ghai.

"Benegalsaab was wonderful. He'd personally select menus for entire schedules of Bharat Ek Khoj and Discovery of India. No one does that now," he says. "Everyone would eat together on set. Vanity van naam ki cheez hi nahi thi."

A visit to Bandra's Mehboob Studio with Yadav is testament to this. He typically has live cooking counters for pasta and tandoori roti and salad, plain rice, pulao, khichdi, roti, dal makhni, aloo gobi, palak paneer, methi chicken and paaya. There's dessert too. But there are different tents for different 'classes' of a unit: a white one for 'regulars' – studio staff and the ones who do the 'heavy lifting' with film equipment – and a big, blue 'VIP tent' for people like assistant directors.

If this lot is unhappy with the food on offer, the production house can rope in another caterer.

Fortunately for Yadav, he's had no such problem.

Tarapad Adhikari
"If I was still around, Lakhan-Takan wouldn't have stood a chance," says 68-year-old Tarapad Adhikari, tugging lightly at the gold-capped rudraksha around his neck. Uncle to Dev, one of Bengali cinema's highest paid superstars, he started out as a chaiwala for Vijay Anand's Ketnav Dubbing Studio before cooking for the cast of the 1976 caper Adalat starring Amitabh Bachchan, Waheeda Rehman and Neetu Singh.

"My rate was Rs8 per plate," he chuckles. "Now you don't even get a fistful of toffees for that much."

Having worked for Ramesh Sippy, Gulshan Rai and Mahesh Bhatt, Adhikari is only too happy to take trips down memory lane. He vividly recalls Gulshan Rai's currency notes ("so crisp, they smelled like black money") and Shashi Kapoor's love for Alphonso mangoes ("I'd get him crates of it during Vijeta").

Film catering at the time wasn't as frenzied as today – a typical film unit now numbers around 300. Payments were timely, and most cooks and workers were given daily wages. The food too was simpler. "No one threw fits about oil and ghee. Baingan aur karela koi tel ke bina kaise kha sakta hai? Fat lends taste and texture. Today's youngsters don't understand that," Adhikari tut-tuts.

In the early '80s, he managed Tardeo's Film Centre Canteen. There were just a handful of food suppliers for Hindi films then: Dadar's Gupta Canteen, two men simply known as 'Vaidji' and 'Harish' and Nataraj Studio Canteen's Shivanna Shetty, the go-to man for Ramanand Sagar, Atmaram, and FC Mehra. Shivanna's son Purushottam owns Jamma Foods, Bollywood's most successful film catering company.

With rising land prices but dirt cheap khaana, operating a canteen no longer made financial sense for studios. After just a year of managing Film Centre Canteen, Tarapad had to leave and start catering for events and TV serials. The last film he catered for was Vikram Bhatt's Ghulam.

The Shetty combine
Goregaon's Filmistan Studio is an island within an island, a petri dish of Hindi filmdom where Shammi Kapoor, Nasir Hussain, SD Burman, and Hemant Kumar were cultured into industry behemoths. Its canteen, run by Ashok Shetty, is the nucleus of the studio and home to a smorgasbord of heady aromas at lunchtime: masala omelette, chicken curry and naan.

Like Ashok, Prakash Shetty, who manages Mehboob Studio canteen, is a distant cousin of Jamma Foods' Purushottam Shetty. Now in his 25th year of keeping the canteen afloat, Prakash admits that film caterers have rendered studio canteens obsolete, but is quick to add that they're down, not out. Those who come here to savour missal pav and dal fry are mostly studio employees and outsiders who want a date with nostalgia.

Raghu, a frail but animated man in his 50s, is Mehboob canteen's longest-serving employee. For 35 years, he's seen everyone from Dev Anand and Mithun Chakraborty to Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, and Hrithik Roshan walk in and out the doors of the modest eatery. He remembers Dev Anand's quirky eating habits. "Devsaab bahut kam khaate the. Lunch ke liye bas ek roti aur thoda sabzi." But he'd insist on an apple and a soda every day. "He'd drink soda instead of water. It was so peculiar," he laughs.

As two canteen regulars approach the counter to pay Prakash Shetty for their lunches, Raghu observes the speed with which his manager counts the change.

"Yeh note bahut jaldi count karta hai," he winks.

To which Prakash replies: "Bahut kam aate hai na, isliye!"

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