What’s in a name?

#TGLife

India’s love for Bollywood celebrities knows no bounds. We love to see the actors and actresses in films, advertisements, and Youtube videos, but some fans are so deep in love with their favourite stars that they associate a number of other things with Bollywood. This is more prominent in case of food items. Several restaurants, not just in India but around the world have dishes named after Bollywood celebrities. 

If this sounds a little crazy to you, we suggest you take a moment to think how practical and logical it is to name food items after your favourite celebrities. Firstly, it is a good way to express your love towards your favourite film stars, and secondly, the dish named after a celebrity will make your restaurant famous, which will in turn bring you good business. 

We speculate that this was exactly the case with the restaurant in USA that has a Dosa named after Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone. The fact cae to light when a fan tweeted the picture of the restaurant’s menu to Deepika herself. What the actress herself thought of this, there is no way to know. But Deepika is not the only Bollywood star to have a dish named after herself. 

One of the most popular stars in Bollywood is Salman Khan. his films do good business regardless of the quality of their plotlines, he makes all sorts of dance moves look cool despite their crazy twists, and receives the unconditional love of fans from all walks of life across the nation. There is little wonder thus, about the existence of a Salman-themed restaurant in Bandra, Mumbai (of course). The names of the dished are a real riot - ‘Anda apna apna’, ‘ek garam chai ki pyali ho’, ‘Dabang 1’ which is a mutton dish and  ‘Dabang 2’ which is a chicken dish. ‘Jai ho’ is their vegetarian counterpart, ‘most wanted’ is there list of the most popular dishes and ‘mera hi jalwa’ are Salman’s favourites.

Similarly, a restaurant in South Mumbai has a dish named ‘Chicken Sanju Baba’Added to the menu in 2010, the spicy, gravy-based dish is a special recipe by the actor, handed down to the owner Khalid Hakimi and his chefs.

Indeed restaurants will come up with innovative ideas to cash in on the names of their favourite celebrities. Remember the famous Size Zero figure that Kareena Kapoor-Khan had acquired when she was shooting a movie named Tashan? 

The movie has faded to oblivion of course, but the memory of the size zero figure lives on-in a pizza! There is an Italian (in India)restaurant who has honoured Kareena Kapoor Khan with a “Kareena Kapoor Size Zero Pizza”, made of thin crust base and low-fat cheese. 

All things said and done, one great Indian epic that out-earned, everyone and became a cultural phenomenon has also left a big imprint on food. Bahubali has an entire Thali named after itself, and is served by a restaurant in Pune. 

What’s most special about the thali is that it contains a huge paratha that is made using five flours and is loaded with paneer tikka masala, red bell pepper, cheese and a few Punjabi masalas. It’s about 22 inch in size and weighs over a kilogram. “

But that’s not all; apart from the gigantic paratha, the thali comprises six types of vegetables, dal, jeera rice, three types of desserts, raita, salad, farsan, a shake dahi puchka, chapattis, Patiala lassi, vegetable dum biryani and the list goes on. This thali definitely cannot be finished by a single person; it takes about a group of at least six to seven people to demolish the thali!