By Brinda Majithia

Brinda Majithia

Be it breakfast, lunch or dinner –onscreen and off-screen – we love having a delicious range of parathas – with butter, raita, pickle, chutney or just on its own.

We all have fond paratha memories. Your mom, friend’s mom, some relative wali aunty or door ka rishta wali aunty might have fed you parathas once in a while!

The most common and favorite variety of parathas are– alu, methi, gobi and mooli.

Be it in movies, or film sets, while traveling out of the country, our stars are in love with this staple dish from North India.

Let’s trace the Bollywood connection with yummylicious parathas!

• The love of parathas can cross continents. In the 2002 romantic drama film – Mujhse Dosti Karoge, Hrithik Roshan get the aroma of a gobi paratha inside his office cabin in London and the whiff leads him to Rani Mukerji who had carried his favorite dish all the way from India.
• The love of parathas is beyond mortals. There are several instances of bonding between the unlikely friendship of a boy and a ghost in Bhootnath. In one of the scenes, Banku’s mother is surprised with his choice of breakfast and struggles to make ‘aloo parathas’ but Banku and Bhootnath bond over devouring it.
• For the love of parathas, I will make a movie. Paranthe Wali Gali is a 2014 Indian romance comedy film directed and produced by the award winning playwright and theatre director Sachin Gupta. The female lead Naina runs her own catering business and delivers delicious paranthas to her clients. She plans to own a shop in the Dilli ki famous Paranthe Waali Gali.
• The love of parathas to get high. Humshakals. Yes we are talking about that disastrous movie. Few scenes from this movie take the paratha love to another level. Riteish Deshmukh uses cocaine to make the dough thinking it is flour and serves it to the guests at his restaurant and they go crazy after eating the so called ‘Cocaine Ke Paranthe’. If this is was not enough, they have something called ‘Vodka Ke Paranthe’ as well. Hic hic.
• Let’s compete for the love of parathas. Dil Dhadakne Do team had a chance to meet former Olympian ‘Milkha Singh’ in Chandigarh. Farhan Akhtar, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh and Anil Kapoor took on to Twitter to express their gratitude and happiness on meeting the legendary sprinter. Apparently there was a paratha eating competition which Farhan Akhtar won!
• Will hog for the love of parathas. While shooting for Houseful 2, being a hardcore foodie and true Punjabi, actor Rishi Kapoor is known to have gorged on piping hot parathas prepared for the complete unit.
• For the love of parathas, make them a part of the elaborate wedding spread. There was a lavish spread of food and several cuisines at Shahid Kapoor and Mira’s wedding. Along with all the fancy food, desserts and drink, they also incorporated Purani Dilli ka Khana while serving Parathas stuffed with Rajasthani Daal and Bhujiya, Mattar Stuffed Puris with Kaju Wala Arbi Jhol, Khatta Meetha Parathas.
• For the love of parathas, I will dedicate a song. Rapper, actor and playback singer Baba Sehgal has made a video titled ‘Aloo Ka Paratha’. The video has 1 lakh+ views on YouTube. In this whacky video, Baba Sehgal talks about his love for aloo paratha and suggests replacing the usual accompaniments with paratha like butter, chutney or mango pickle with malai.
• Will throw a paratha party for the love of parathas. Priyanka Chopra was shooting in Montreal, when she got the news of being awarded the Padma Shri. Her mom was with her they planned to have a paratha party on sets. The Punjabi kudi is known to gobble parathas for breakfast.
• Will invite celebs for the love of parathas. The Babu Ram Paranthe Wale shop has displayed a photo of the late actor Farooq Shaikh as a fond memory who relished their gobi ka paratha some years ago.
• Will tweet about the love and craving for parathas. In 2015, while shooting in Toronto, the talented veteran actor Anupam Kher expressed his desire to have the parathas. He took to his Twitter account and wrote, “Finally landed in Toronto. It is so chilly here. But they say it is supposed to be a warm day. Feel like having an Aloo parantha.”