Armaan Jain On Food, Family & Dining With The Kapoors
Meet the man who's got the entire Kapoor clan on one table, and on your screens!
If you've ever wondered what's it like to break bread with the first family of Indian cinema, the Kapoors, you're in for luck. Netflix's newest special, Dining With The Kapoors, offers a rare fly-on-the-wall immersion into what it feels like to share a meal with one of India’s most storied clans, where memories are served as generously as the food.
Marking the birth centenary of the legendary Raj Kapoor, the family — Randhir Kapoor, Rima Jain, Neetu Kapoor, Karisma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, Kunaal Kapoor, Zahan Kapoor and great-grandchildren, Navya Nanda and Agastya Nanda, all gather together for a feast prepared by grandson Armaan Jain.
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The menu draws from Krishna Raj Kapoor’s treasured recipes, the soul of the Kapoor kitchen. Directed by Smriti Mundhara and produced by Armaan himself, the unscripted docu-drama captures the Kapoor khandaan in their natural habitat: laughing, reminiscing, teasing and, above all, eating.
We caught up with Armaan Jain to dish out on memories, mouthfuls of nostalgia and more.
How was Dining With The Kapoors conceptualised?
I didn’t meet my grandfather, Raj Kapoor — I was born two years after he passed away. Whatever I know about him is through what I searched and what my mom (Rima Jain) told me, and she was the pivot in putting this project together.
I have a food business called Junglee Kitchen, inspired by my grandma’s (Krishna Raj Kapoor’s) home recipes, which I improvised on. It was his 100th birth year, and my mother and I were thinking of how to celebrate it. While ideating, I thought of all the years we’d grown up together — and even though cinema is our background, the core of our memories was always food: hosting, cooking, eating.
From my grandmother’s time to my mom’s home and now mine, the house has always been an adda where people land up to eat and enjoy each other’s company. Food is our love language. Raj Kapoor, apart from being the legend he is, loved his food. His parties and get-togethers were legendary; the RK home was an open house. So there was nothing better than celebrating him through food — bringing the family together to reminisce, to honour our joys, our losses, and to walk down memory lane.
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From macaroni & cheese to fish curry and daal makhani, you served everyone’s favourites. Was there any discussion on structure or mood?
My idea was simply to have them all together. Honestly, throughout the shoot the family kept asking, ‘Are the cameras rolling?’ or ‘Are we shooting?’ Once we’re together, we forget everything — we’re just one cohesive unit absorbing the vibe of being under one roof. They’re all used to being on sets every day, but here they were so candid and oblivious to the fact that we were filming. I wanted the essence of who we are behind closed doors. The dishes weren’t curated for anyone. It was unorganised chaos… which is exactly what we are as a family.
Did the weight of the Kapoor legacy overwhelm you?
Absolutely — it’s a huge responsibility. They’re all professionals who’ve been in the industry for years. This is my first production, my first time show-running a film. Netflix entrusting me with this project is remarkable, but it came with a lot of responsibility.
Even though they’re big stars, all of us have a common thread — food and the stories we grew up with. I was clear about what I wanted to say. We shot for multiple hours, and condensing that into a 60-minute special was tough. But whatever you see does justice to who we are. There was no intent to shape perception — just to show what this family is like without cameras following them. We’re like any other family: we joke, we argue, we’ve had good and bad times, we have traditions passed down. That’s all we wanted to share.
What was the one thing that struck you about your family — something you hadn’t observed before?
We know how honest and uninhibited they are, but the funniest part was them constantly asking me, ‘Is the camera rolling or not?’ And I’d say, ‘It’s been rolling for three hours.’ They’d respond, ‘Oh my god, we may want to chop this or that!’ They’re used to being followed by cameras, but here, doing this at home, they slipped so easily into being themselves. They even said it felt like our usual family hangout.
Finally — who’s actually a good cook in the family, other than you?
I always joke that most of the family are great hosts — they understand food and they love eating — but they’re not cooks. Saif (Ali Khan) is actually a very good cook. I spend a lot of time with him; when he hosts, he loves making a couple of dishes. We bond in the kitchen; in fact, most of the family walks into the kitchen before anywhere else. Zahaan (Kapoor) is also a very good cook.
