Direction isn’t rocket science: Dilip Mehta

Renowned photojournalist-turned director Dilip Mehta, whose feature debut Cooking With Stella premieres today at the 34th Toronto International film festival, says that his movie is “a metaphor for social disparity” in India.

Mehta social satire places the uniquely Indian phenomenon of household helps and their relationship with their employers in a cross-cultural context.

“It isn’t something that we should be proud of, but it is a fact that there is a Stella in every Indian household. The film uses cooking as a metaphor for social disparity.”

“She said that I was mad, and that we would fight all the time. So we decided we will not go beyond co-writing. When the film was being written, she was in Toronto and I was in Delhi.

So we stayed out of each other’s path,” he says. But he is quick to add that Deepa Mehta was around all through the shoot. “What a mentor to have.”