Vikas Khanna: One role I enjoyed the most is of being the son to a mother who raised me to reach out for all my dreams
Vikas Khanna: One role I enjoyed the most is of being the son to a mother who raised me to reach out for all my dreams
Super-chef, philanthropist, India’s foremost ambassador to the West, Vikas Khanna speaks to Firstpost on his new documentary on an extraordinary woman.
How and when did you decide to make a film on this amazing woman?
In 2018, someone tweeted about Karthiyani Amma. It was the most unique and inspiring story I had ever heard in my life. When I first heard about Amma, it reminded me of my grandmother who had dreams to go ahead in life. But women like my grandmother and Amma never had the opportunity to be educated, in spite of her intelligence.
What was your first meeting with Kathiyani Amma like?
When I met her for the first time I felt I had never come across anyone so deep and so inspiring. Then and there I decided I must tell her story. I felt by making a film on her there would be an awareness about education for women and empowerment. Education according to me is the key to social progress.
Karthiyani Amma is inspirational on many levels. Did you get to spend a lot of time with her?
Her wisdom just blew my mind. There are so many fascinating things about her which we couldn’t address in a fourteen-minute film. She told us how her neighbours made fun of her every morning as they would see her going to school with her books. They would taunt her saying, ‘You are doing all this for attention. At a time when you should be praying for moksha why are you attending school with girls of your great-grandchildren’s age.’ But she was very sure of what she was doing. ‘I am not bothered with what people say. I’ve listened to people all my life. I want the dignity of education in the last leg of my life’ I knew making a film on her life was going to be exceptionally inspiring. By spending considerable time with her I realized how important it was for any society to provide opportunities for the disempowered to blossom.
Literacy especially female literacy remains a looming issue in India. Do you hope to see more women being educated by taking Amma’s triumph to the world?
I do feel that there is a vast disparity between educational opportunities for boys and girls across the world. We need to raise our voice against this inequality. There are parts of the world where girls are denied education. We must not succumb to the obsolete belief that girls should remain uneducated, just because it’s been happening for centuries in some societies. I still meet people who believe girls should be taught to be wives mothers and homemakers. But giving the girl the wings to fly through education is the most useful thing we can do in a developing nation.
This was at first an illustrated book. Please tell me about the project’s journey.
Yes, I wrote a children’s book on Karthiyani Amma. I did so because I wanted her message to reach kids. She once told me that a lot of kids in her school made fun of her out of ignorance. I wanted them to feel Amma’s pain. That’s why I did an illustrated book. I wanted to build a sense of empathy for Amma among kids, and I am glad to tell you, a lot of elders read the illustrated book and were inspired to follow their dreams.
Vikas, yours is an astonishing success story. When do we get to see a film on your life?
Ha ha! my story is work in progress. But there is a documentary on my life made in 2017 called Buried Seeds by a Russian-American filmmaker Andrei Severny. That was a wonderful experience for me. But I do feel I am just a guy trying to constantly expand his horizons.
Superchef, author, philanthropist, filmmaker, which role do you enjoy the most?
All the roles I’ve played in my life cooking for 37 years, writing, filmmaking, raising funds for various causes, raising my voice globally against injustice, are fulfilling. But the one role I enjoyed the most is that of being the son to a mother who raised me to reach out for all my dreams. She never stopped me from doing anything that I wanted to. She keeps reminding me that I am Indian, and to never to behave like a white man.
Where and when do you find the time for all of this? Is this why you have chosen to remain single, so you can focus on your work?
I am often asked this question. I don’t allow myself any emotional stress except when it comes to my family. Business-wise I don’t allow myself any stress. I’ve seen my restaurant business reach the highest levels of success and then I’ve been totally unemployed several times in my life. The name of the game for me is to move on. Don’t think about it when you fall. Think about how quickly you can stand on your feet again.
What do you feel about someone like Priyanka Chopra branching into the food business? Do you see yourself as the ambassador of Indian cuisine in the West?
Anyone in the diaspora can be an ambassador for our country. One thing that I am really proud of is that many other Indians are making a name outside India. Hari Nayak is the chef of Priyanka Chopra’s restaurant Sona in New York. I am really proud of him.
Your future plans?
My film which I’ve been writing since 2011 features Shabana Azmi as a failed chef in New York who comes back home to India to be inspired again. I am very proud of that work because it is a semi-biographical story.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.
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