Nana turns superchef on the Priyan’ssets!

Nana Patekarhas actually taken on the mantle of a superchef to see to it that the actors ofPriyadarshan’s comic caper Malamaal Weekly 2, produced by Percept Pictures,starring Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Nana Patekar, Rajpal Yadav, Shreyas Talpade,Asrani and Shakti Kapoor among others have a taste of the traditional fishdishes, straight out of his mother’s recipe book.
Havinglearnt the traditional recipe of the mouth-watering dishes, powered by hismother’s traditional masala comprising of over 42 ingredients, Nana ensuresthat the fish is fresh out of the lake on the banks of which the shoot of thefilm is on.
A special mud kiln has been made and the fish is first marinated in 42masala-mixture and wrapped in leaves and tied up to keep the masala in place.Nana then, gets the fish covered by wet mud so that the fish is now in twolayers.
Next comes the laying of the fish without disturbing the mud and leafcovering and then wood and leaves and dry grass is used a fuel.
“It takes over four hours for the fish to get perfectly cooked,”elaborates Nana. “But the fish tastes heavenly.”
Considering that most of the crew members actually stand next to Nanafrom 30 minutes of the cooking process, plate and bowl in hand, one surelyunderstands the kind of cooking that Nana is being famous for on the sets ofthe film.
What is interesting is that contrary to Nana’s jovial and easygoingpersonality, the character in the film is such that Nana hardly speaks a wordand uses his stone-faced expressions to walk off with the scene that generallyhas actors of the ilk of Om Puri and Shreyas Talpade among others.
Says producerShailendra Singh, “we wanted to look beyond the star culture, to look at aleague of extraordinary gentlemen, extraordinary actors, who would bring theirown flavour and add value to the script and I think, we have come up with theperfect cast.”
Nana Patekarfeels that it is Priyan’s spirit that makes the vital difference.  “Priyan and I, we had planned so many films,but it feels so good when one film happens. More than anything else, I love toact and leave the rest to my director. That is what happens with Priyan,” enthusesNana.
May be, itis this confidence in  the director thatactually lets Nana take the load off his mind to keep the unit in high spiritswith this unique sense of humour and to dish out extraordinary fare that keepsthe unit of the Priyan comic caper going!
Catching up with Priyan tucking into delicious food, we manage to ask a question...“So who is the romantic lead opposite Nana?” Priyan grins, “Nana doesn’t need awoman in this film. He has me for the romantic angle!”
True, with a director likePriyan and actors of the calibre of Nana, one really needs no woman to followformulae. And no fortune teller to let you know how malamaal the film will beat the weekly boxoffice. Wot say!