Jon Favreau’s ‘Chef’ to Get Bollywood Remake

Jon Favreau’s Chef will get a Bollywood makeover with actor Saif Ali Khan in the lead role.

The project is backed by Abundantia Entertainment, Eros International and Alumbra Entertainment.

While a director is still to be named, the Hindi-language remake will star Khan as a professional chef (played by Favreau in the original) who quits his job to run his own food truck in Los Angeles. With a career spanning over two decades, Khan’s filmography includes 2001’s hit comedy Dil Chahta Hai, while his latest release was this year’s action film Phantom.

“I’m excited to see how this personal film translates to the Indian culture,” Favreau said in a statement. “The themes of food, music and family should resonate well.”

The remake rights were acquired by Abundantia from Favreau’s Fairview Entertainment. Abundantia was founded by Vikram Malhotra, the former CEO of joint venture Viacom18 Motion Pictures. At Viacom18, he oversaw titles such as director Anurag Kashyap’s acclaimed two-part epic Gangs of Wasseypur, which premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2012.

Abundantia’s titles include this year’s action movie Baby and the upcoming January release Airlift. As reported earlier, Abundantia recently acquired the film rights to the best-selling Pakistani Bridget Jones-style novel Karachi, You’re Killing Me.

“Ever since I first saw Chef, I knew that this film had to be made in India,” said Malhotra. “Charming relationships, a feel-good story and a unique journey of self-discovery make Chef the ideal film to bring alive in an Indian context.”

Indian film major Eros will distribute the film worldwide.

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