Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food

Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food Movie Details:

Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food Movie Cast & Characters:

• Nayanthara as Annapoorani Rangarajan (voice dubbed by Deepa Venkat)
  • Ovi Bhandarkar as young Annapoorani
• Sathyaraj as Chef Anand Sundarajan
• Jai as Farhaan, Annapoorani’s classmate and love interest
• Achyuth Kumar as Rangarajan, Annapoorani’s father (Voice by Jayaprakash)
• K. S. Ravikumar as ‘Arusuvai’ Annamalai
• Karthik Kumar as Chef Ashwin Sundarrajan, Anand’s son
• Renuka as Saradha, Annapoorani’s mother
• Sachu as Subbulakshmi Paati, Annapoorani’s grandmother
• Redin Kingsley as Chinto Chin, Annapoorani’s classmate and friend
• Suresh Chakravarthy as Chef Suman
• Parvathi T as Farhaan’s mother
• Chef RK as Chef Raju Karthikeyan
• TSR as Chef Vadamaalai
• Poornima Ravi as Keerthi, Annamalai’s daughter and Annapoorani’s classmate and friend
  • Baby Samyuktha as young Keerthi
• Som Shekhar as Santhosh
• Mohamed Irfan as a YouTuber
• Priyadarshini Rajkumar as Keerthi’s houseowner
• Thidiyan as Chef
• Jagan Krishnan as Audience Member

Storyline:

Annapoorani is an aspiring chef who wants to pursue a degree in hotel management and climb the ladder to become a corporate chef like her idol, Chef Anand Sundarajan. Her family’s lineage has been dedicated to serving at the Srirangam temple, where her father cooks the food offered to devotees as prasadam. The family being Brahmin eats only vegetarian food. Annapoorani’s father refuses to let her be in a room where meat is served and cooked, let alone let her pursue a degree where she is forced to handle meat.

However, Annapoorani remains steadfast in her decision to be a chef and secretly joins a hotel management course at the same university where her parents believe she is doing an MBA. She is then caught one day by her father, eating chicken leg pieces, and is then forced into a marriage alliance. On the day of her wedding, she runs away with her friend Farhaan to Chennai. She then manages to get a job at the same hotel where her idol works and strives to be the best possible chef. She impresses the visiting president of France and is promoted to chef-de-cuisine.

Chef Anand’s son, Chef Ashwin, slowly grows jealous of Annapoorani and sabotages her by staging an oven accident leading to her acquiring aguesia, and her taste buds becoming inactive. Through hard work, she manages to train to be the best chef in India and manages to win despite her loss of taste.

About Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food Movie:

• Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food is a Tamil drama film directed by Nilesh Krishnaa in his directorial debut and jointly produced by Jatin Sethi and R. Ravindran under Zee Studios, Naad Sstudios and Trident Arts. The film stars Nayanthara in the title role, alongside Jai and Sathyaraj. It follows Annapoorani, who dreams of being a chef, and the obstacles she comes across while trying to fulfill her dream.
• On 12 July 2022, Zee Studios, Naad SStudios and Trident Arts announced their jointly produced film, with Nilesh Krishnaa in his directorial debut, and Nayanthara in the lead role. It was tentatively titled as Nayanthara 75. Krishnaa previously was a co-writer for Shankar, co-writing films such as 2.0 (2018) and Indian 2.
• The film marks Nayanthara’s first film in the lead role after her wedding to Vignesh Shivan in June 2022. The same month, Jai, Sathyaraj and Redin Kingsley were cast for supporting roles, with the former reuniting with Nayanthara after Raja Rani (2013).
• On 8 April 2023, cinematographer Sathyan Sooryan, music composer Thaman S, editor Praveen Anthony and art director Durairaj were announced being part of the crew. The same day, Redin Kingsley, Suresh Chakravarthy and Renuka were announced being part of the cast. Krishnaa revealed that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he narrated the script of the film during a phone call to Nayanthara. He further revealed that he wrote the script with her in mind. He further announced that K. S. Ravikumar and Achyuth Kumar were part of the cast, with the latter playing the role of Nayanthara’s character’s father. On 25 October, the title of the film was announced through a promotional video. It is a reference to the Hindu goddess of food, Annapurna.
• Principal photography commenced on 9 April 2023, with the first schedule in Chennai. Filming began with the blessings from the veteran actor Rajinikanth. Within three days, the schedule concluded. After a short break was done, the second schedule began by mid-April in Tiruchirappalli. Filming wrapped by 16 September.
• Annapoorani was released in theatres on 1 December 2023 and received mixed reviews from critics.
• ZEE5, and the satellite rights by Zee Tamil bought the post-theatrical streaming rights of the film. However, the digital rights were later changed to Netflix. The film had its digital premiere on Netflix on 29 December 2023.

Controversy

The film ran into controversy after its Netflix release, with Hindutva activist Ramesh Solanki filing an FIR police complaint against the streaming company and the filmmakers for using the name of the Hindu goddess Annapurna in the title and for allegedly promoting “love jihad” and non-vegetarian food among Hindus.