Sameer Sharma’s directorial debut, Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, that flagged off in Ludhiana is being touted as India’s first ‘food’ movie. Kunal Kapoor, who plays the lead opposite Huma Qureshi, points out that it’s an appropriate subject for a country that is obsessed with eating and feeding.

“When you visit a friend, the first thing you’re asked is what you would like to eat. When you return home, the first thing your mother wants to know is if you’ve eaten. A lot of family bonding happens over the dinner table,” reasons the actor. “And being Punjabis, it’s in Sameer and my genes to be die-hard foodies.”

So is he a good cook? Kunal confesses that he’s terrible. “After a few disasters in the kitchen, I’ve now decided to stick to what I do best — eating,” he laughs, admitting that there was a lot of food going around on the sets of the film. “I ate a lot of chicken but I can never have enough of it. I was strictly told not to workout, so by the end of the schedule I was looking over-fed and over-stuffed.”

The UTV Spot Boy and Anurag Kashyap production revolves around a joint family in Punjab and their secret recipe, Chicken Khurana. Kunal has been associated with the project since it was conceived and admits that if Don 2 was one of the highpoints of 2011 for him, then Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana is the big release he’s looking forward to in May this year.

He was in his home state for the shoot before the Don sequel hit theatres and since the promos were already on air, the locals were curious for a dekko of Shah Rukh’s computer hacker. “For this movie, I’d gone in for a haircut and shaved off my usual beard, so I was almost unrecognisable,” Kunal laughs. “It was funny to have bystanders walking up to me and wondering where Kunal Kapoor was!”