Barfee stars relish mist and hill cuisine

Darjeeling, Feb. 23: Priyanka Chopra is in love with the mist, Ranbir Kapoor cannot stop himself from appreciating the local cuisine and the entire Barfee team seems to be simply enjoying the taste of Darjeeling.

Anurag Basu, the director of the film, seems to be finally breathing easy with the shooting going on smoothly in the Darjeeling hills in his second attempt. The team had to pack up mid-way through the shoot in June last year after failing to manage the crowd at Chowrastha.

“I did come up with a (Darjeeling) set in Mumbai (Film City) even though I had wanted to shoot the entire film here. We were also planning to go to Ooty but then Saumitra da (Saumitra Mohan, the district magistrate of Darjeeling), who was in Mumbai on a personal trip, met me and assured me of all help. This time, we met everybody, including Mr (Bimal) Gurung, and things are fine,” said Basu.

With no disturbances on the set, the stars, too, seem to be enjoying their stay in the hills. “I will miss the mist as I have to leave for Hyderabad tomorrow to shoot for Krissh. I have my accommodation down here in the hotel and as I open the windows every morning, the mist enters my room,” said Priyanka.

The actress had earlier tweeted on her stay in Darjeeling: “Our hotel was such a quaint beautiful place n my room overlooks the mountains…the mist says hello every morning…sigh!!! Sooo romantic.”

Ranbir, who plays a deaf and mute character called Barfee, said: “It is not a very scientific character in a way as it does not involve a lot of technicalities of using sign languages. We are using a method which is acceptable to the audience. The film is basically a romantic-comedy.”

In between shooting, Ranbir is enjoying the local cuisine. “We had gone to Kungas (a well known restaurant in town) and Ranbir simply enjoyed the local food there,” said Basu.

Priyanka’s character is about an autistic girl. “The special thing about my character is that when the role is about different behavioural people, one starts to think about sadness and morbidity. This is a fun film; it is a happy film and a warm film which shows special people in a very real way. It is a laughable film,” she said.

In fact, Basu had first thought of christening the film “Silence.” “We thought that with a title like ‘Silence’, people would start thinking of the film of a particular genre, like the Mr Bean character,” said Ranbir, before Priyanka added: “People start thinking with another perception (with such a title) but the film is very warm.”
The shooting in the hills will continue till February 29.(Telegraph)