EXCLUSIVE: Arati Kadav on adapting The Great Indian Kitchen in Hindi as Mrs., “My first reaction was to not remake a cult classic” : Bollywood News

February 13, 20257 Mins Read

Filmmaker Jeo Baby’s Malayalam movie The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) is considered iconic. It has fans in the non-south regions too. This is what made filmmaker Arati Kadav a bit reluctant initially to remake it in Hindi as Mrs. But she is glad that the film, which stars Sanya Malhotra and Nishant Dahiya, has been getting a positive response. Instead of making it as it is, Arati has incorporated a lot of changes in various ways, which makes it more like an adaptation than a remake. She spoke about Mrs., its making and other things in an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama. The film is currently streaming on ZEE5.

EXCLUSIVE: Arati Kadav on adapting The Great Indian Kitchen in Hindi as Mrs., “My first reaction was to not remake a cult classic”

Who came up with the idea of remaking or adapting The Great Indian Kitchen in Hindi?

This was a brainchild of my producer Harman Baweja. He came up with this idea of adapting this film and he asked me to come and meet him. I think he was meeting a lot of directors. I think he met around nine directors. In fact, when he met me, I was the first one to tell him that this him that it’s such a pitch perfect film. It’s very a tough film to adapt also because there is no plot in it; it’s a treatment-based film.

So, that was your first reaction to his idea?

My first reaction was to not remake a cult classic. People have a very strong relationship with it. So, when you adapt and remake a cult hit, you set yourself up for some challenge. It might or might not work. I was slightly concerned about that. And in today’s world, you have access to every film; you can add subtitles and all.

But he was very correct. He said when he saw the original, he thought whether he should ask his wife for a glass of water or should he only take. So, his reason to remake it was correct. He knows that there is a huge north audience, including my mother, who don’t watch films with subtitles and whose sensibilities are not evolved for Malayalam cinema. It’s such an important story. For example, you keep retelling stories like Ramayan and Mahabharat. He also he liked my views on the original and he liked the changes I was suggesting that maybe we set it in a middle-class household and show that it is independent of economic and education status and show a doctor family. That’s how the film came to life.

Was Sanya Malhotra your first choice for the central character?

Yes. Actually, I heard that Sanya was also interested in the film and it really moved her. She has a very beautiful child woman-like quality, which I felt will help her carry this film well. Also, as an actress she has a lot of empathy and dedication. This film needed that honesty from the actor. It needed complete immersion and I thought she could offer that. So, for me, she was a perfect choice. I wanted my character to be someone to carry the story, so you live the story through her. She is generally a nice person, so that niceness also shines through.

Nishant Dahiya appears very harmless and gentle. So, when he starts becoming mean, rude and harsh towards Richa, I was quite taken aback. How did his casting happen?

The casting for this film was very tough. There are such less characters, so we had to be right. We didn’t know if a mainstream actor would choose this role because it’s a negative and smaller role. Mukesh Chhabra, the casting director, had shown me an audition of Nishant Dahiya for some other role. He said he is a very solid actor. And Nishant Dahiya is also a very good looking actor. So, I wanted an actor on whom Sanya’s character can have a crush in the beginning. And then from loving him, she had to show how you start hating him. I knew that that graph he could bring. Also, Nishant has a very strong theatrical rooting. And he really immersed himself into the role. He did a great and fantastic job. And it was so nice to work with him.

Was there any particular reason why you felt his character should be a gynaecologist?

I wanted to set it in a doctor’s family because I wanted to say that this (subjugation of women) is independent of economic and education status. We were discussing what specialization to give him. We felt let’s just make him a women’s doctor but (show that) he is still unaware of women’s desires. He still goes about it in a cold-blooded way.

There is an incident in the original movie where the husband and his father visit the Sabarimala temple for a religious ritual. But you haven’t shown the two characters visiting any north Indian temple in Mrs.

In today’s climate, we cannot be having religious intonations because then people unnecessarily start taking offence about it. Also, this will still be a contained story. It was so much more about her ambitions than about anything else. And I felt that even if you take away the religious aspect of it, even in a normal household this is what happens. In the original, she was pushed to the extreme. She was also locked in the room. But I felt even if you don’t lock her in a room, even then what happens with her in a day-to-day basis is horrifying enough.

Your film has lots of scenes featuring various food items. How challenging was it to shoot the food scenes?

It was very challenging. The biggest challenge is that food is very time consuming. It should look fresh. So, you have to make it fresh. You can’t make it a day before and keep it in the fridge. Also, the actors are eating the food, so you want its quality to be good. So, we had a food stylist on the set. Even coming up with the list of food was very challenging. There are like around, at least, 70-80 recipes in the film. We wanted to make sure that every time it was a different food item. So, we had to plan this. We spoke with food bloggers and grandmothers who had recipes. Also, we wanted to link food with her various hopes. Like, when she wants a job, she will cook something extra light. So, that is a slight way to bribe also.

Your film shows that even in today’s day and age, women continue to be subjugated and harassed in the name of marriage. Do you see any hope of this changing?

I am very hopeful because the fact that films like these are received well means that people are ready to have this conversation. And change is always slow and steady but the awareness that something is not correct is very important. In old times, men used to go for hunting and women used to be in the caves. Now, the whole structure has changed. Now, women and men both go out to work. Men don’t go and hunt. Earning doesn’t depend on your gender. But the women work inside the house is the same.

Also Read: Sanya Malhotra expresses gratitude to her mother in touching post after Mrs release: “Meri life Ki prime number”