Nana Patekar has actually taken on the mantle of a superchef to see to it that the actors of Priyadarshan's comic caper Malamaal Weekly 2, produced by Percept Pictures, starring Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Nana Patekar, Rajpal Yadav, Shreyas Talpade, Asrani and Shakti Kapoor among others have a taste of the traditional fish dishes, straight out of his mother's recipe book.

Having learnt the traditional recipe of the mouth-watering dishes, powered by his mother's traditional masala comprising of over 42 ingredients, Nana ensures that the fish is fresh out of the lake on the banks of which the shoot of the film is on.

A special mud kiln has been made and the fish is first marinated in 42 masala-mixture and wrapped in leaves and tied up to keep the masala in place. Nana then, gets the fish covered by wet mud so that the fish is now in two layers.

Next comes the laying of the fish without disturbing the mud and leaf covering and then wood and leaves and dry grass is used a fuel.

"It takes over four hours for the fish to get perfectly cooked," elaborates Nana. "But the fish tastes heavenly."

Considering that most of the crew members actually stand next to Nana from 30 minutes of the cooking process, plate and bowl in hand, one surely understands the kind of cooking that Nana is being famous for on the sets of the film.

What is interesting is that contrary to Nana's jovial and easygoing personality, the character in the film is such that Nana hardly speaks a word and uses his stone-faced expressions to walk off with the scene that generally has actors of the ilk of Om Puri and Shreyas Talpade among others.

Says producer Shailendra Singh, "we wanted to look beyond the star culture, to look at a league of extraordinary gentlemen, extraordinary actors, who would bring their own flavour and add value to the script and I think, we have come up with the perfect cast."

Nana Patekar feels that it is Priyan's spirit that makes the vital difference. "Priyan and I, we had planned so many films, but it feels so good when one film happens. More than anything else, I love to act and leave the rest to my director. That is what happens with Priyan," enthuses Nana.

May be, it is this confidence in the director that actually lets Nana take the load off his mind to keep the unit in high spirits with this unique sense of humour and to dish out extraordinary fare that keeps the unit of the Priyan comic caper going!

Catching up with Priyan tucking into delicious food, we manage to ask a question... "So who is the romantic lead opposite Nana?" Priyan grins, "Nana doesn't need a woman in this film. He has me for the romantic angle!"

True, with a director like Priyan and actors of the calibre of Nana, one really needs no woman to follow formulae. And no fortune teller to let you know how malamaal the film will be at the weekly boxoffice. Wot say!