Adil Hussain recollects cooking 6 course meal for Sridevi, crew on ‘English Vinglish’ sets

Mumbai, June 17 (IANS) Actor Adil Hussain, whose film ‘52 Blue’ is set to be screened at the upcoming edition of the London Indian Film Festival, has recollected how he cooked a 6 course meal for the late actress Sridevi, and the crew on the sets of ‘English Vinglish’.

The actor spoke with IANS, and shared that the food served on the sets of the film in New York started getting monotonous with only the North Indian cuisine as the spread.

He told IANS, “One fond memory from the sets of ‘English Vinglish’ is that Sridevi was very tired of eating the food which was served while we were shooting in New York. The caterer was giving all this North Indian restaurant version of the food. She said, ‘Oh, God, this food is not happening’. And then I said, ‘Okay, let me cook for you’. So I cooked a 6 course meal for 70 people. And, she just loved it”.

“I had help in terms of chopping and all that. But yeah, that was one of my fondest memories while I saw her relishing the food that I cooked”, he added.

Earlier, the actor had shared his experience of working with a creative ‘giant’ like Sridevi in the film, who at that time had close to 300 films under her belt.

Talking about the same, Adil earlier told IANS, “‘English Vinglish’ was my third film in Hindi language. So it was already a phenomenon that I’m working with a person, Sridevi, who had done, I think that was her 300th film or something. My fondest memory would probably be her humility to ask an actor to work together, to do a scene, she would suggest something and I would suggest something, and say, ‘Oh, can we do it this way?’. She would go, ‘Yeah, let’s do it this way’. She was always ready to improvise”.

He further mentioned that the actress belonged to the rare breed of accomplished actors who never fed the feudal system in the film industry, and rather worked exactly opposite to the norms.

“There is a huge feudal system, you know, a hierarchical system that we follow, stars are stars and newcomers are newcomers, there is no dialogue happening. I’m not saying that is always the case, but that’s the case most of the time. But here, I’m a newcomer in the film world, and then I’m working with a giant, as accomplished as Sridevi, and there she comes and consults, we consult each other to see if we can do a scene a particular way. It was very open communication with her for the greater good of film”, he added.

–IANS

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