Armaan Jain Builds Culinary Legacy with Grandma Krishna Raj Kapoor's Recipes

Created by Armaan Jain, who also serves as producer, and directed by Smriti Mundhra, Dining With The Kapoors offers a sneak peek into the legendary Kapoor family gatherings, centred around their iconic, lavish lunches.

Through this special project, Armaan also takes audiences back to the time when the legendary Raj Kapoor hosted grand parties at his Chembur home, where his wife, Krishna Raj Kapoor, delighted guests with her unforgettable recipes.

Armaan Jain is the son of Rima Jain, who is the youngest daughter of legendary actor-filmmaker Raj Kapoor and his wife, Krishna Raj Kapoor

While Kapoor kids like Kareena, Karisma, and Ranbir have proudly carried forward their grandfather's cinematic legacy, Armaan has carved out a successful culinary career, drawing inspiration from her grandmother, Krishna Raj Kapoor's deep passion and love for food.

Before foraying into the food ventures, Armaan tried his hand at acting. He made his acting debut in the romantic drama Lekar Hum Deewana Dil in 2014.

Prior to this, he worked as an assistant director at Dharma Productions, contributing to projects such as My Name Is Khan, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, and Student of the Year. However, his acting career failed to resonate with audiences. Destiny had other plans. Through perseverance and hard work, he eventually founded The Junglee Kitchen, a delivery kitchen that brings to life the iconic family recipes of the Kapoor family.

Speaking with ANI, Armaan opened up about what made him foray into the food business.

"Initially, you think it's all glamour and glitz, and it's easy, and you can just jump into this whole space of cinema and acting. I gave myself a fair shot at acting at that point. I gave eight or 10 years to the whole craft. And it didn't work out for me. But I mean, of course, you get disheartened. I mean, you tried something for a long time, you've invested so much time in a certain space. But if I go back to like, my learning before I was acting, I worked in a production house for three, four years, did about four or five films, got to learn so much there. And today, I am able to put that knowledge into practice"

Armaan said if time is invested in learning something, it is eventually fruitful

"This is my first project as a producer, first time as a showrunner. And I think whatever I did learn, then I think it all comes full circle, you realise later that whatever you kind of, you know, invested your time learning kind of is fruitful eventually. I look at the last 10 or 15 years as just a learning. Yes,acting didn't work out. But food is something that is such a big part of most Punjabi households, and especially the Kapoors," he shared.

"And I saw that firsthand, I didn't get to meet my grandfather, Raj Kapoor. I mean, it was all cinema, cinema, cinema in his era. I mean, I mean, of course, it is today as well. But with my grandmom, my fond memories are just food and get-togethers and, you know, seeing her host people. And I think that that legacy transcended to my mom's home and then our home. I always felt like preserving a certain part of that legacy, which no one's really seen before," he added.

Recalling the influence of his grandmom on his life, Armaan further said, "This takes me back to the years when I started the Junglee Kitchen, which is my food business. It's just that, when I think of my grandmom, the bite she fed me with, actually, that rice, ghee and dal, it's something, it's just so special, which I want to feed to the whole world. And that's why I started this food business. And it's all our household recipes. And I've obviously tweaked and improvised it. I guess just being a foodie is just something that we all are, and I wanted to take it forward."

- ANI