Ever since she understood that while I was a film maker, I did not hobnob with heroes and heroines, my mother was convinced that I had taken up a second or indeed third class profession. No amount of discussions and debates could convince her otherwise. Only when she realised that my films sometimes involved models was she pacified. But she never missed a chance to tell me that things would have been much better if the models I shot with were of national if not international prominence and were quite often in Hyderabad where she could perhaps meet them and even, yes…even have them over for tea.

So when she overheard that I was sending the car to fetch my wife so she could watch me shooting with a few hundred models, nothing could stop her from coming along for the ride.

When she walked onto my location set she was scandalised and very nearly had to be hospitalised, Because what I was shooting was one of Asia’s largest slaughter houses and my ‘models’ for the shoot included only the best looking bulls, the meatiest of buffaloes and the choicest of sheep. And when she passed the section where hundreds of entrails were being processed, she gave up and beat a hasty retreat.

Now, even if you are shooting with Miss India, I do not want to come for the shoot, she said as she left in a huff.

Yes, shooting for the slaughter house was one of the more difficult assignments I have ever handled. In about ten days of shooting I had about 8 crew changes. I had to change my camera person twice. Most of the crew turned vegetarian for a few months after a day at the slaughter house. While I was editing the film my editors used to have queasy stomachs and regular upheavals.

But the film eventually turned out to be a fairly good one. It very easily illustrated that here was a world class slaughter house that upheld both religious/spiritual and international health standards of hygiene. At the end of the film you were left with the firm impression that if you had to buy meat, you were much better off buying Al Kabeer meat.

Take a look at the film. It really changed the way I look at my steaks and burgers!

Al Kabeer, Hyderabad. Asia’s Largest, Most Modern Slaughterhouse