From Priyanka’s Sona to Arjun Rampal’s Lap: the Bollywood stars with a taste for opening restaurants
- Priyanka Chopra may have set tongues wagging with her plans to open an Indian eatery in New York City, but she is just the latest film star with culinary ambitions
- Bobby Deol led the way with Someplace Else, Suniel Shetty put a sporty spin on the genre with H20 and Sushmita Sen has paid homage to Bengali cuisine
Sona, which “reimagines the wonders of Indian fare in a space that evokes a bygone era of a boisterous yet elegant India” will serve classic dishes with a modern twist. The smorgasbord will include Kofta Korma (ricotta dumplings in cashew sauce), Chili Cheese Naan, appam (a type of Indian bread) and Thalssery Biryani crafted from kalma rice, indigenously grown in the southernmost Indian state of Kerala, among other dishes.
Many other Bollywood stars have also had a taste of the food business, opening bars, pubs or eateries.
One of the first was actor Bobby Deol, 52, whose fine dining Indian-Chinese eatery Someplace Else in Mumbai received rave reviews soon after its debut in 2005. The second generation actor’s movies have been a mixed bag at the box office, but he has had better luck as a restaurateur. After Someplace Else, Deol launched an Indian restaurant named Suhana and a Chinese cuisine eatery Zion, both Mumbai-based.
