'The Bollywood Burner: World's Hottest Curry' claims Virgin Media

Richard Branson's Virgin Media beat BBC and Rupert Murdoch's Sky Networks to become the first mainstream broadcaster in offering 'Bollywood Movies On Demand,' a dedicated digital channel to Bollywood for its subscribers in the UK. In a great publicity stint to launch its channel, Richard Branson also commissioned 'The Bollywood Burner: World's Hottest Indian Curry,' in association with The Cinnamon Club, a posh restaurant in London.
Diners are required to sign a disclaimer saying they are aware of the nature and risks involved in tasting the curry before eating it. The Bollywood Burner is being submitted to the Guinness World Records for verification of its status as the world's hottest curry. The results should be announced in two to three weeks.

Research by Virgin Media reveals one in ten Brits think that their curry night in front of the telly would not be complete without a traditional Bollywood flick, which is why they've just launched Bollywood Movies On Demand.

Virgin Media's Bollywood Movies On Demand will showcase popular Bollywood movies, including romantic flick "Humko Deewana Kar Gaye", thriller "Taxi No.9211" and comedy "Hulchul".

"To help capture the true Bolly spirit, Virgin Media has joined forces with The Times Bollywood movie critic, Anil Sinanan, to produce a Rough Guide to Bollywood which is packed full of fun facts for beginners including Bollywood's history, top stars and movie plots, plus a themed menu specially created by top Indian chef, Manju Mahli," says Virgin Media site.

Unfortunately, Anil Sinanan starts on a shaky wicket by claiming that Bollywood started in the 19th century, confusing the origin of Indian cinema with Bollywood, a term for popular Hindi cinema, which originated in the late 1980s.

The Bollywood Burner

The dish’s hottest ingredient is the Naga pepper, which has previously held the record for the world’s hottest pepper and measures over 855,000 on the Scoville scale – the official measure of piquancy of peppers. A jalapeno pepper, ordinarily considered hot by most diners, is a paltry 8,000 on the scale by comparison.

The ‘Bollywood Burner’, a lamb-based dish, was created by Vivek Singh, executive chef of The Cinnamon Club restaurant. Inspired by Hyderabadi cooking, it’s anything but Daal, with the dish containing:
- A series of hot Deccan chillies
- Dorset Naga (the hottest Naga pepper) seeds (over 855,000 on the Scoville scale)
- Kashmiri chilli powder
- Sesame tamarind sauce
- Naga peppers
- Scotch Bonnet peppers (around 300,000 on the Scoville scale)

James Kydd, Virgin Media’s managing director of brand and marketing said: "We are delighted to be bringing the hottest film genre to our customers with Bollywood Movies On Demand, so what better way to celebrate than with the world’s hottest curry. Bollywood is set to really take off this year and we’re hoping to encourage people to try something new – be it a Bollywood movie or an extra hot curry!"

Vivek Singh said "We were happy to take on the challenge from Virgin Media to create this dish and in my opinion it is certainly the world’s hottest curry. Whilst extremely hot, we wanted to make sure this was a spectacular dish that would set diner’s hearts racing. Although we have only created it as a one-off, we are considering including it on the menu later this year. As one would expect this is a dish for people with steel-lined stomachs. "

Bollywood mania was also seen in the heart of London. More than 200 budding dancers braved the weather in Trafalgar Square to break a world record for Bollywood dancing on July 7, 2008.

The five-minute routine had people of all ages and backgrounds dancing to Shah Rukh Starrer "Om Shanti Om". The 212 people who took part earned themselves a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

The event was part of a dance-themed festival organised by BBC Blast, which caters for teenagers and young adults.

Hosted by Strictly Come Dancing's Erin Boag, it encouraged young people to break several world records including largest number of football freestyle tricks in one minute and largest number of street dance moves in 60 seconds.

As Boag announced they'd broken the record the heavens opened and sent people dashing for cover. Organisers admitted the weather had put many people off, with attendance down on the 10,000 who took part last year, but said they were hopeful of breaking all the records.

Virgin Media's guide on Bollywood: A Sample

• The B in the word Bollywood comes from Bombay. The rest of the word is borrowed from the home of movies in the West, Hollywood.

• Most commercial films last almost three hours, and films without songs remain a rarity.

• Bollywood's most famous film is Sholay ('Flames', 1975), a curry-western.

• Forget about plot logic or the acting; Bollywood's unique style is based on engaging the emotions, and eyeing up the eye candy on display.

• Bollywood's biggest star ever is Amitabh Bachchan. Now in his 60s, his films have ruled the box-office from the 1970s to the present day.

• Bollywood's current biggest male stars - Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir, and Saif Ali - share the same surname, 'Khan', but are not related.

• Many Bollywood films pay shameless homage to Hollywood and other foreign films, suitably 'Indianised' with the addition of saris and songs.

• The sound in Bollywood films is rarely filmed on location, so the actors mime their words and the songs which are dubbed in later.

• Although most films have at least five songs, no actor actually sings; the songs are recorded by professional playback singers.