Hyderabad and Lucknow, two cities that have much in common, will have a friendly face-off in director Habib Faisal’s forthcoming film Daawat-e-Ishq , produced by Yash Raj Films, pitching Aditya Roy Kapoor as a bawarchi from Lucknow and Parineeti Chopra as Gulrez, a shoe seller from Hyderabad. Juxtaposing these two cities for his film was not by design, says Faisal. After exploring Delhi in Do Dooni Chaar and Band Baaja Baarat (which he had written), he was looking for a new challenge, to highlight a different dialect and a new dimension in writing.
His wife is a Tamilian Muslim and Habib Faisal notes that her dialect has striking similarities with the dakhni lingo. “I’ve been fascinated by the Urdu idiom used by my wife and her family,” says Faisal. He considered having the female protagonist from Chennai but wasn’t sure of the colour and texture the city would offer for such a story. “This is not to say that Chennai lacks in vibrancy. Hyderabad, as perception goes, has more Muslim identity than Chennai and the Hindi-speaking North Indian audience will relate better to the dakhni dialect emerging from here. So I decided to make Parineeti’s character a Hyderabadi,” he explains.
Going by what he has read, he was aware of the similarities between Lucknow and Hyderabad. “The hangover of the Awadhi and Nawab cultures is evident even today. The nazakat , architecture and the language apart, there are friendly tussles as to who makes better biryani,” he laughs.
Faisal observes that Hyderabad, like any city steeped in history, finds itself at the cusp of change. “Parineeti’s charecter lives in a mohalla in the Old City and work in a mall in Cyberabad. When a youngster commutes from a traditional household to the modern part of the city for work, there is more than a physical journey that takes place. I needed a strong cultural background to show her stance against dowry system, which eventually necessitates her family to move to a different city,” explains Faisal. The crew shot in areas around Lad Bazaar, Charminar, High Court and parts of Cyberabad.
Unlike Ishaqzaade that captured turbulence in a fictional small town (shot in Lucknow), Daawat-e-Ishq will ride on food and romance. “Lucknow’s architecture and food will add layers to the narrative. Aditya is a young bawarchi , hailing from a family that established a kebab joint in Lucknow in 1890. Recipes are handed down over generations and for him, cooking is not a job. He likes to make people happy with his food.”
For the film, Faisal didn’t hire a food stylist but dug into his self-confessed obsession with food. “We don’t have an item number to seduce people; the food will do that,” he laughs. A lot of attention has gone into capturing the visual appeal of the food, he says, and mentions how the unit would heat up the dishes to make them appear hot and fresh for the camera while shooting in peak winters when ghee would thicken within minutes. “While shooting, I noticed how people in Hyderabad and Lucknow are mad about food. Barely minutes after lunch, they begin to think of what to cook for dinner!”
The unit shot in Mumbai for a few scenes and Faisal concedes it wasn’t easy replicating the authenticity of the cuisine. “We needed Shahi Tukda for a scene and the ones made in Mumbai look nothing that what’s prepared in Lucknow. My mom makes one of the best Shahi Tukda and going by her recipe, I gave instructions to the team to get the right colour and thickness of bread.”
After Daawat-e-Ishq , Faisal will return as a writer for the Shah Rukh Khan starrer, Fan . Writing for another filmmaker is therapeutic, he says. “After directing, when I write for someone else, it’s like going to school. Fan is a different genre and this process of switching genres and responsibilities helps me focus better on writing.”
