Why do Bollywood stars love biryani? Shah Rukh Khan swore by Salman Khan’s recipe during Covid-19 lockdown, while Aamir Khan has a restaurant version of the dish named after him
- Cinema fans might consider trying the Aamir Khan Mutton Dum Biryani at SP’s Biryani in Pune, marking the actor’s visit to the restaurant in 2019
- The staple rice and meat dish is enjoyed beyond India in Afghanistan, Thailand and Myanmar, and some scholars trace it back to the royal kitchens of the Mughals
While we can definitely argue about which biryani is the best, it’s clear that the dish is one of South Asia’s finest culinary inventions. Biryani rose from humble origins to becoming a staple at all kinds of restaurants today, from roadside dives to luxury fine dines.
A video of Bollywood’s Shah Rukh Khan making biryani during lockdown last year went viral; and he swears by fellow actor Salman Khan’s recipe. Shah Rukh’s wife, Gauri Khan, said: “During this lockdown, we were initially scared to even order any food from outside. So ghar ka khana (home-cooked food), as we say, is made by Shah Rukh Khan himself and we are enjoying. He loves to cook and I enjoy eating.”
If you too want your biryani Bollywood style but don’t happen to live next to an actor-cum-chef, then there’s always the Aamir Khan Mutton Dum Biryani at SP’s Biryani in Pune, introduced to mark that actor’s visit to the famous restaurant in 2019.
Biryani borrows its name from the Turkish word birian, meaning roasted, and the Persian word birinj, meaning rice. Originating from the nomadic Turkic tribes of Central Asia, this dish was an amalgamation of rice, meat and spices that was slow cooked (a method known as dum) over a fire. Biryani has mainly two types – kacchi (raw marinated meat and rice are layered together and cooked) and pukki (cooked meat and parboiled rice are layered together and cooked).
Historian Lizzie Collingham states that the modern biryani developed in the royal kitchens of the Mughal Empire (1526-1857) and is a mix of native spices and local recipes. The 16th-century Mughal text Ain-i-Akbari states that the dish is even older; an Indian rice dish known as oon soru in Tamil was made as early as the year 2 A.D. from rice, ghee, meat and spices to feed hungry soldiers.
Biryani spread across India at the time of the Mughals, with the Nabobs of Awadh and the Nizams of Hyderabad giving rise to the various styles we see today. Different communities brought different influences to the dish: the Lucknowi biryani has a Persian influence because the Nabobs were from Iran, while and the Muradabadi biryani has a more Afghan influence due to the Rohilla Pathans from Afghanistan who settled in western Uttar Pradesh.