Filmmaker Tharun Bhascker on Aha Bhojanambu - A hilarious episode about films, families and the joy of cooking

There's very little that can go wrong in a show when actor, producer Lakshmi Manchu is its host. With her vast experience across multiple mediums, she packs in the right element of drama, humour and wit in her shows where entertainment is a certainty. She continues her solid form with Telugu OTT platform aha's food-talk show Aha Bhojanambu, where a new episode featuring a celebrity guest premieres every Friday. While Vishwak Sen and Rakul Preet Singh got to showcase their culinary skills in the first two episodes, this week it was the turn of writer, actor and director Tharun Bhascker to explore the chef in him.

Tharun Bhascker chose to make two dishes that many South Indians hold close to their hearts - Chakkara Pongal (Sakkarai Pongal in Tamil) and Rasam. While Tharun proclaimed he's a natural at cooking non-vegetarian items, he jovially asked Lakshmi Manchu to not judge him by how he manages to make the above-mentioned dishes. The filmmaker shared that food works as a therapy of sorts regardless of what he's going through in life and that he would find joy in it even when he was bullied for being an overweight boy in his childhood years. 

Tharun later reminisced his early years in Chennai where his grandfather brought him seafood and was also reminded of a funny incident where a crab had escaped its way from a bag and slid into their room. He and Lakshmi Manchu were a hoot together discussing everything under the sun, from their families to childhood memories to the love for 'dum idly' on the sets of their films and the power of food to unite people under one roof sans any barriers. Interestingly, the two spoke of another common link in their lives. Lakshmi Manchu's father (actor, producer Mohan Babu) and Tharun Bhascker's grandfather happen to share the same name - Bhaktavatsalam Naidu. 

Lakshmi and Tharun enjoyed taking a dig at each other about getting the proportions and ingredients for the dishes right - be it the use of jaggery or the slices of pineapple in chakkara pongal or the use of green chillies in garlic rasam. Tharun added that he intentionally shares the pictures of his dish ingredients and not the dish in his Instagram profile because of how messy the dish looks finally. The episode had a cute little surprise where Tharun Bhascker's mother Geetha Bhascker was connected on a virtual call and joked about the 'mess' that Tharun creates after he finishes cooking in the kitchen. Commemorating five years of Pelli Choopulu, they cut a cake at the end of the episode. This time around, the brand placements are integrated organically into the episode and don't stick out like a sore thumb. 

Also read: Lakshmi Manchu turns a host again for aha Bhojanambu