Why Govinda's delicious comeback Hero No. 1 may just be a super hit

Among the many things that Govinda loves food would have to be up there. He might be the only Hindi film star besides Sanjeev Kumar to be overweight and yet be wildly successful. And, now with the opening of his restaurant in New Delhi, there can be no doubt about Chi Chi bhaiya’s love for food.

Even though Govinda’s not the first of the film stars to venture into the food business and he’s not even the first to name his restaurant after him – there’s Tendulkar’s and Asha’s and Sourav’s and no prizes for guessing whom they belong to, of course - but Govinda’s enterprise cannot be mistaken for anyone else's.

In a case of either abject lack of creativity or being a no-brainer, the joint’s called Hero No. 1.

When compared to his contemporaries, Govinda always stood out. Irrespective of the context Govinda would appear to be drawn from a different set of blueprints. He was an industry insider - his father Arun Kumar Ahuja was discovered by Mehboob Khan and acted in several films through the 1940s including Aurat (1940), Khan’s precursor to his opus Mother India (1957) – and yet he had to struggle like millions of aspirants to get into films.

By the time Govinda had decided to pursue acting his father had lost all his money including a palatial bungalow because a film he produced had flopped and they shifted to Virar. He came at a time when heroes like Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff, the next generation action stars or the perfect Angry-Young-Man-replacements were going strong and the clean-shaven Govinda started off by being a dancing sensation in Ilzaam (1986). When action films were the norm he was a regular feature in social dramas.

By the late 1990s when urban romance was becoming the go-to genre, Govinda got into action comedies. When Bollywood became chic and cool, Govinda went the whole hog on masala entertainers. In spite of going against the tide, Govinda continued to remain in a league of his own right from the early 1990s where Shola Aur Shabnam and Aankhen made him a superstar till the end of the decade where he had one monstrous hit every single year and stood his own against the Khans as well as Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn.

For Govinda to venture into the restaurant business is not a unique thing. He joins a long list of film actors who have some stake in the restaurant business such as Arjun Rampal, who owns Lap, the chic discotheque in New Delhi’s Samrat Hotel, Dino Morea, who owns Crepe Station Cafe along with his brother, Bobby Deol, who owns Someplace Else, Perizaad Zorabian, who owns Gondola and Suneil Shetty, who owns H2O - to name just a few.

Food had been a fascination with stars for a long time now. Tales of how stars loved a particular dish such as Shah Rukh Khan devouring two helpings of Sitaram Dewan Chand ke Chhole Bhature that one of his employees had carried from Delhi or Rajesh Khanna coercing his Mami, Madhu Talwar, to take over a hotel’s kitchen in Europe to get some home-cooked meal are part of industry folklore.

Similarly, stories of some of them being great cooks like Madan Mohan and his fabled Bhindi-Meat, the one that he bribed Manna Dey with to convince the singer to render "Kaun aaya mere mann ke dwaare" in Dekh Kabira Roya or Jackie Shroff’s baigan ka bharta that he cooks for friends in the business are also legendary.

The next level is, of course, some of them translating their passion into a business. Among the ones known not just for their cooking skills but also for making it accessible to all, Asha Bhosle’s name would top the list.

Her restaurant, Asha’s has branches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Birmingham, Manchester, Kuwait, and Qatar and while the singer is not involved in the day-to-day running she takes a personal interest in the menu.

Many of the items served at her restaurants have a personal connection with Asha Ji and it is said that she herself chooses things such as the spices for the traditional Indian fare on offer.

While some like Asha’s are commercially successful ventures, those like Tendulkar’s — which offers the batting legend’s favorite recipes besides merchandise — were not able to make it big.

Even Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly ventured into the food business, but they were a pale shadow of their own selves on the field when it came to being successes in the trade.

One of the reasons why celebrity food joints might not have become as profitable as they envisaged could have to do with the fact that food hasn’t been celebrated in Hindi films as much as it ought be.

Unlike Tamil films where the food on screen is a common feature, very few films show food as a part of the life of the character and fewer still centre on food.

You would not find something like the Bengali song by Manna Dey, "Ami shri shri bojohori Manna" from Prothom Kadam Phool (1969) that talks about a magical cook who travels to many lands and acquires a unique culinary style, in Hindi films.

In fact, the singer was also known to be a great cook and the song later became the inspiration for the chain of Bengali restaurants called Bhojohori Manna.

This is changing now with films like The Lunchbox (2013) that have food playing a major character, but it is still a while before love for food on screen blossoms into something like people walking in slow-motion to get some chow like in Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000) becomes a common sight. 

At times, such ventures are born out of sheer commercial necessity like in the case of the late actor Mohan Choti, who started a restaurant called Kissa Roti Ka, Dhaba Choti Ka to sustain himself when film offers reduced.

When one visits a place such as Asha’s, Tendulkar’s or now, Hero No. 1, one would like to be associated with the brand through the food and the ambiance.

Like Garam Dharam, a Dharmendra-themed restaurant in Connaught Place where the ambiance, the menu and just about everything is an ode to Dharam ji.

This could be the reason why Planet Hollywood was a great concept when Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis were associated with it in the initial stages.

Like the concept of Hard Rock Café, where you can see rock memorabilia on display and be a part of it in a sense, Planet Hollywood gave you a chance to pose on the bike that Arnie rode in Terminator II and such.

Maybe that is the reason why things do not run solely on the basis of a name and the business model, too, needs to be strong. While one is not expecting Govinda to be regaling patrons a la Jake La Motta in Raging Bull but the food would truly become No. 1 if the Hero surprised you with a visit.