Celebrity chef Asma Khan will host food documentary series “Tiffin Stories,” it was revealed at Singapore’s Asia TV Forum & Market.
In the six-part “Tiffin Stories,” Asma Khan will be seen interacting with iconic Indians and the Indian diaspora, unearthing their nostalgia associated with food, while bringing to fore their life journeys. The serieswill be filmed in India and the U.K.
Khan, who is originally from India, runs the immensely popular Darjeeling Express restaurant in London. An episode of Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” series was focused on her.
Raghav Khanna is the creator and showrunner of “Tiffin Stories.” Khanna is creative director and writer of acclaimed food documentary series,“Raja, Rasoi, Aur Anya Kahaniyaan,”and more recently he was leading documentary production for Netflix in APAC, where he was the studio executive on the Oscar-winning short documentary, “The Elephant Whisperers.” He has also directed the first episode of Applause Entertainment and Film Companion’s “Modern Masters,” revolving around “RRR” director S.S. Rajamouli.
In 2022, Singapore-based production group Beach House Pictures partnered with Khanna to launch Riverland Entertainment in Mumbai, India. “Tiffin Stories” will be produced by Riverland and Tudip Entertainment, a production studio that produces projects with an international appeal. Khanna, Dipti Agrawal and Tushar Apshankar serve as producers on the series.
“Food is central to every occasion in our lives-from birth and death, to marriages. In this series we celebrate the emotional link of food and stories. Often food becomes the language of love and resilience. ‘Tiffin Stories’ is a journey into those food memories,” Khan said. “This series is my homecoming – my first time telling the story of my food and its people. I cannot imagine anyone better than Raghav to collaborate with in this journey. Everything he has worked on has a sincerity and honesty that is deeply moving.”
Tudip CEO Agrawal added: “We truly believe that ‘Tiffin Stories’ has a universal appeal as a concept due to its focus on the emotional ties between food and life stories. Our aim as Tudip is to collaborate with young and brilliant creators and talent such as Raghav and support non-fiction projects having novel and diverse subjects and elevated execution.”
Khanna said: “People’s emotional association with food, its manifestation as nostalgic memorabilia has fascinated me. In this series we aim to tell deeply personal stories of individual journeys, of perseverance and triumph, with food acting as the binding agent. I have immense admiration for Asma’s art and her contribution to Indian cuisine. I vividly remember being inspired by her episode on ‘Chef’s Table.’ Asma and I met last year and we discussed making a food series together that goes beyond food, delving into its emotional and personal aspects.”
“I feel there is no better time to tell unscripted stories. The last few years have shown that the audience’s engagement with documentaries has been through the charts. Thanks to the streaming ecosystem, stories told with authenticity now stand to find global patrons,” Khanna added.
