Chef, the 2014 film that Jon Favreau wrote, directed, and starred in — with LA-based chef Roy Choi's guidance — is set to get the Bollywood treatment. Variety reports Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan (Phantom) will star as Carl Casper, the main character in the film.
The rare movie with a chef protagonist that gets it right, Chef was a box office hit worldwide, grossing $46 million. In the original film, Favreau played Carl Casper, a chef who abruptly leaves behind a job at a fine dining restaurant in Los Angeles to reinvent his life and fall in love with food again. A cross country journey in a food truck ensues, and Casper rekindles a relationship with his son. Sofia Vergara and Scarlett Johansson co-starred as Casper's doting ex-wife and barely there, sometime love interest, respectively.
According to Variety, Abundantia Entertainment, Eros International, and Alumbra Entertainment will co-produce the film; a director has not yet been named. The remake will be filmed entirely in Hindi. Abundiantia says they will "adapt Chef for the Indian palate while retaining the flavor of the original." Filming will begin next year; a release date has not been set.
"I'm excited to see how this personal film translates to the Indian culture," Favreau told Variety. "The themes of food, music, and family should resonate well."
Last year, on the heels of the film's success, Favreau told the press that he was working with Roy Choi (Kogi, POT, LA) to open a restaurant based on the foods in the film. With Choi's current project — Loco'l — keeping him busy, this doesn't look like it's high on Favreau's list of projects. But if it does happen, perhaps it could now include Indian food if the Bollywood remake is as big of a success as the American version has been.
A scene from the original film set to salsa music: