“I’m so tired of people asking about my favourite eateries and dishes in Kolkata!” chuckles Ranveer Brar, as he sits down for a short chat with My Kolkata. The celebrity chef’s grievance is justified. Much of his Instagram feels like a love letter to the city’s culinary culture.
From the pice hotels to the Kabiraji, Ranveer’s nugget-sized stories of Kolkata’s obsession with food have recently gone viral multiple times. “This city has some very poignant stories. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah is one of the most misunderstood men in history. Everyone finishes his story in Lucknow, but very few talk about his arrival in Metiabruz and his tryst with the biryani,” he says. Another thing Ranveer finds fascinating is the democratic nature of Kolkata’s street food, most visible in the iconic telebhaja (fry-ups). “Telebhaja dikhata hai ki Kolkata mein khaana kisike baap ki jaagir nahin hai (The telebhaja shows food in Kolkata isn’t someone’s personal property). A student and a businessman from a BMW can stand in a queue for the same telebhaja — it’s a great equaliser,” he explains.
From seasoning dishes to peppering characters
Ranveer hasn’t limited himself to just seasoning delectable dishes. In recent years, he’s also been peppering intriguing characters on screen. Much like his food, he enjoys profound simplicity in cinema too. World cinema has been his greatest inspiration. “You can’t not talk about Satyajit Ray and his Apu Trilogy. I also love Majid Majidi’s work. In terms of acting, Robert De Niro is my favourite. It’s about cinema that moves me, cinema where I can feel the texture.”
Despite his appeal in front of the camera, Ranveer resisted a lot of acting offers for years Soumyajit Dey
Despite his appeal in front of the camera, Ranveer says he resisted a lot of acting offers for years. “I was not very comfortable with acting and hadn’t even participated in a drama in school. Ranveer, the chef, had become dominant before the camera, and when you’re in your mid-40s, you’re not very receptive to change. The roles I got offered were all negative characters, and I feared that they would leave a lasting impact on me,” he says.
Things changed in 2022 with Hansal Mehta’s Baai, an episode from the anthology series, Modern Love Mumbai. “Hansal sir asked me to just read the script once. My character was this chef, who enjoyed cooking nihari. While reading, I connected with both the character and myself, so we met midway. After the shoot, the character didn’t stay with me, but it left me with a lot of commonality,” he smiles. However, Ranveer truly gained confidence in his acting chops when he saw himself on the screen for the first time, and found that the character was much more than him.
Ranveer with co-star Pratik Gandhi in ‘Baai’, one of the segments of ‘Modern Love Mumbai’
Marinating in negative roles
Hansal Mehta shared this confidence, and soon approached Ranveer for a new role. “He told me it was time to do a negative role — a grey character. It made me uncomfortable because the character was nothing like me. But I knew that if I crossed this hurdle, it would be a personal achievement” That’s how Ranveer joined the cast of The Buckingham Murders. The crime thriller has received global acclaim at film festivals and is set for a theatrical release on September 13.
While the thought of working with veterans like Kareena Kapoor did make him nervous, his past experience in front of the camera helped. “Having done so much TV, and now, YouTube, I’ve grown very comfortable around the camera. My mantra is ‘pose, pause, and then impersonate’. That’s the only way to disconnect from the environment,” he shares.
The experience has been so enriching that Ranveer now only wants to portray negative characters! “Playing a character that you would normally never relate to leaves you with a lot of empathy. Doing things that you wouldn’t do in real life helps you better understand your own grey side. It’s like therapy,” he says.
How acting upped the food game
Interestingly, Ranveer’s acting has made him a better chef. “Acting needs stillness, even in the most violent scenes. Cooking needs stillness too, but in the rush of a restaurant, we often forget that. Acting helped me reconnect with that stillness in the kitchen,” he beams.
Perhaps it is a reflection of the times we live in, or of Ranveer’s growing following, but he confesses that sometimes, he feels like stepping away from the public gaze and disappearing into peaceful oblivion, just cooking. “But wherever I go, my team sends a camera behind me and says, ‘Content ban jayega!’
