Balti Kings (1999)

by Sudha Bhuchar and Shaheen Khan

In Birmingham’s Balti Land, where Indian restaurants ruthlessly compete for custom, curry wars rage with price slashing and chef poaching.

Restaurateur Yahsin Anwar is on the verge of being swallowed up by the mighty Karachi Karahi.  To ward off this threat, his family plan a grand re-opening where you can pile your plate for under a fiver and ‘curryoke’ into the night.   But the temperature in the kitchen soon rises, as the chef is faced with the challenge of producing 35 dishes in five hours, hampered by staff whose personal affairs are also hotting up…

Balti Kings is a comical slice of contemporary British Asian life centred around the businessmen of the Midlands who have built their fortunes on the back of Britain’s most popular food.  Sue Mayes' set for the show even featured a real working kitchen, ensuring that the actors not only had to remember their lines but cook as well.  The play was also the inspiration for Tamasha’s first short film Midnight Feast.