Cooking up an identity

Come Friday and Nimrat Kaur will be better recognised as the actress from The Lunch Box. And not just as the girl from that chocolate ad. The self-confessed chocoholic — “I’ve got one in my bag right now,” she reveals— is only too pleased about it.

“This story resonated with the French audience. I remember the astounding, deafening applause we got after the screening. It left me teary-eyed,” recalls Nimrat about the reception the movie got at its Cannes premiere this year.

The festival seemingly is becoming a habit for the actress, considering that for a newbie like her, it is her second time there already. “I went to Cannes for the first time last year when my movie Peddlers was screened.” Her memories from the visit are indelible. “It is such a beautiful place. The food, the people, the dresses they wear... I remember being struck by just how gorgeous the place was. It was also great to see how Indian actors were received there,” Nimrat gushes. That said, she admits that the trip to the international film festival this time around was an altogether different experience. “With The Lunch Box, it was a different monster altogether because the spotlights suddenly were trained on us.”

Moving focus away from the festival to talking about the film itself, the actress attributes its universal popularity to the fact that it is a story “everybody can relate to.” “I think the movie is reminiscent of the movies that were made in the 70s and the early 80s where stories were important. The movie has touched people wherever it’s been shown. It made people feel that this was their story.”

Shot in just 31 days, The Lunch Box’s story is a delightful romance that blossoms between a 50-something man (Irrfan Khan) and a young housewife (Nimrat Kaur) when a dabba is wrongly delivered. Playing a middle-class housewife meant going totally de-glam, so you see Nimrat sans makeup and in extremely ordinary salwar-kurtas throughout the movie.

Dressed quite stylishly for the interaction, you know there’s not much of a similarity between Nimrat and Ila, her character. “I am completely unlike Ila,” she says with a grin. “She is in a loveless marriage, completely neglected and reserved. I am, on the other hand, extremely independent. I am an outdoors person. I think the only traits I share with her are that like her, I am a complete romantic. And it doesn’t take much to get me into the mood either: good weather, poetry, paintings, anything can make me romantic,” she notes. “I am also a good cook!” she quickly adds.

In a movie where food plays a pivotal role, we are curious about how good the food we really see on screen really was. “The food that you see in the film, it was actually all raw,” Nimrat reveals with a wide grin. “We had food stylists to make it look good. Irrfan is the one who had to endure it though —  he had to eat raw brinjals, chillies and beans.” 

After two movies that are wonderful examples of what Indian cinema’s potential can be, we wonder if Nimrat will be okay with doing a typical Bollywood film?
“Question is will they come to me,” she exclaims. “We have all sorts of films being made today. The spectrum is really wide. So while I’ve had fun with what I’ve done, I am ready for any role that comes my way, as long as story speaks to me,” says Nimrat with particular emphasis on that last bit.

And what about the paparazzi attention she’s going to be getting from here on?
Is she going to be okay with that? “I can’t shy away from the fact that I am an actor. So I have no qualms about being written about as long as it doesn’t interfere with my personal life,” she answers, sounding like a veteran actress already.