A culinary adventure. Three different kinds of meals. Three renowned directors. A Bollywood connect. The shoot of the upcoming anthology Three Course Meal (produced by KEFI Media & Entertainment) has wrapped up. All three stories are around one central theme — food — helmed by directors Indrasis Acharya, Shieladitya Moulik and Arjunn Dutta.

Indrasis Acharya’s Red Velvet stars Sushama Deshpande, Joy Sengupta, Anubhav Kanjilal, Ananya Sengupta, Debopriyo Mukherjee, Rajeswari Paul, and others. A night party attended by important guests is the setting for Red Velvet. “The story is so different. It was quite challenging. The production team was really good. I became a part of it. The artistes were so committed. Everything was well planned and designed,” said Sushama. Indrasis Acharya said, “It’s completely different in all aspects than my earlier works.”

Arjunn Dutta’s Biryani stars Paoli Dam, M.K. Raina, Kan Singh Sodha, Rupsa Chatterjee, Devlina Kumar, Shoaib Kabeer, and others. Like the dish, Biryani is a layered story with an unusual twist where the real motives of the characters get revealed at the end.

“My experience has been really good, I really enjoyed it.... the genre is different, with themes of food, secrets, desire.... the film has lots of layers... the team work has been fantastic. My character’s world is an imaginary space created by the director... Arjunn is a fantastic director with a strong sense of craftsmanship and aesthetics, he is open to a lot of ideas... he is flexible with his actors... he has a minimalist approach which I like, starting from expression to look,” said Paoli.

“This was for the first time I worked with an entire new cast. I had a ball directing all of them. Paolidi and I have been planning to do something together for a long time and finally it did happen with Biryani. It was an absolute honour and a learning experience working with M.K. Raina Sir. Shoaib and Kanji play unusual and atypical parts in it, it was lovely working with them too. Collaborating with all of them was an enriching experience and they have given their best,” said Arjunn. Shieladitya Moulik’s Baby Food stars Shweta Basu Prasad, Anirban Chakrabarti, and others. In Baby Food, Garima, a young mother, is locked up in a basement room when she gives birth to a baby who has an unusual appetite, and life becomes extra difficult for her. In no time, her maternal instincts lead her to do anything to provide food for her only son. “Anthologies as a concept is very interesting. It is usually one theme and you have different stories. It is a very cool way of telling stories. My experience was absolutely wonderful. It is a Hindi film shot in Calcutta. I had an amazing time, it was a great team. Wonderful co-actors. We bonded really well. Baby Food really pushed me as an actor. It is nothing like I have ever done before. I’m really proud of it. Shieladitya is a very confident director,” said Shweta.

For Shieladitya Moulik, “it felt really heavy after writing the screenplay and I heard the same when I narrated it to the producers and my team. But it’s really challenging to do something in this genre. I’m planning to surprise the audience not only with the content but also with the execution. I’m super excited to collaborate with ace directors like Arjunn and Indrasisda on this one.”

Joy Sengupta and M.K. Raina

Shieladitya Moulik

Arjunn Dutt

Anirban Chakrabarti

Indrasis Acharya

Shweta Basu Prasad and Sushama Deshpande at Fairfield by Marriott Kolkata

Pictures: Pabitra Das