I
f a brown boy from a relatively small
Indian town can go to New York, set
up his restaurant and get a Michelin
star, he can surely direct this film,”
celebrated chef Vikas Khanna shares
the driving statement for him, when
he decided to do it all on his own for
The Last Color, which follows the unusual
friendship of Chhoti, a fearless nine-year-old
tightrope walker and flower seller, who savours
her dream to save `300 so she can attend
school, and Noor, a white-clad widow who
lives in total abstinence and is disallowed from
taking part in any festivities, especially Holi.
In 2011, Khanna was shooting in Vrindavan
for his book Utsav (which later went on to be
the world’s most expensive book), when he
spotted a narrow back alley turn to a sea of
white rather than donning the colours of the
festival that he and his mates were drenched
in. The hue came from the attire of hundreds
of widowed women, who were looking out of
their balconies, admiring the festivities from
afar. The stark contrast struck him within
a split second, but what moved him even more
was the goosebumps-inducing eye contact he
made with an elderly woman, who folded her
hands in a warm namaste to him. While he
faintly heard one of his helper mates telling
him not to look at her since it was inauspicious,
the world-renowned chef admits “it killed him”.
“I was born and raised in India, and the
sight shouldn’t have shocked me. Growing up,
I have seen women in my surrounding in
similar attire. But yet it did. At almost 90 years
of age, with a difficult life, she had such a high
level of gratitude. I looked down for a second,
and when I looked back up, but the moment
ended. I experienced this sinking feeling, and
throughout my flight back to New York
that night, I was uneasy, to say the least”
Khanna reveals. He penned his emotions as
a short story that night, only to be disappointed
that no mainstream media publication was
willing to publish it. Over a period of time, heREALITY what it takes to be
Michelin star chef Vikas Khanna left no stone unturned to realise his dream of making a movie on
a subject close to his heart, and it is now screening at fests worldwide, he tells Shraddha Kamdar“If a brown boy from an relatively small Indian
town can go to New York, set up his restaurant and
get a Michelin star, he can surely direct this film.”A TWIST OF FATE