Bareilly Ki Barfi And Its French Connection

Filmmaker Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, who has earlier won accolades for Nil Battey Sannata, was inspired by a French book to make her next film Bareilly ki Barfi.

When Ashwiny was returning to Mumbai from the final schedule of Nil Battey Sannata, she picked up an English translation of a French book, titled Ingredients of Love from a bookstore at Delhi’s international airport.

She was totally captivated by the story and once she completed the book, she also ensured that her husband, writer-filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari read it.

Talking about the book, Ashwiny said in a statement, “I was tired, but I couldn’t put the book down. I even made Nitesh read it and he agreed that the basic story could become the theme for a film.“

“I was so excited, I even told my producers, Abhay Chopra and Juno Chopra (late filmmaker BR Chopra’s grandsons) about the story immediately . They put in a lot of effort to contact the publishers in France and procure the rights to the book,” she added.

Bareilly Ki Barfi, which has Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon and Rajkummar Rao in the lead roles, will have Ashwiny and her husband team up as director and writer for the second time after Nil Battey Sannata.

Nitesh, who adapted the book into the script, has changed the setting of the story from France to Uttar Pradesh. The film has been co-written by Shreyas Jain.

Nitesh Tiwari said,“It’s difficult to adapt any book into a film. The French settings are alien to us, so we’ve only retained the basic theme and infused our own colours, quirks and characters into the story . The parents, friends and lovers, their professions and their basic habits have all been adapted to our culture. I got time to work on the script because Ashwiny was caught up with the post-production of her first film. I just hope that the audience likes my first tryst with breezy cinema.”

When asked if both of them were under pressure to deliver, as both their films were praised, Ashwiny admits, “I’d be lying if I said no. I don’t want people to say , `Yeh kyun kiya!’ Though Nitesh is a harsh critic and has not been too critical in his views so far, I’m still anxious about what the audience would think. I hope I have done justice to his writing. The team was excited at the very thought that Nitesh was writing it.”

Junglee Pictures, in association with BR Studios, is going to release Bareilly Ki Barfi on August 18.