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19 March 2024

Mohanlal, Mammooty take food orders at this Dubai restaurant

Sharath Alappuzha (left(, the mimicry artiste and Rony Jose, Manager, Paramount. (Supplied)

Published
By VM Sathish

Paramount Restaurant in Al Rigga, Dubai, may not be the red-carpeted, Twitter-driven, lights and camera kind of setting for the South Indian diaspora or the film stars they follow.

Yet, the restaurant claim that stars like Mohanlal, Mammootty, Dulquer Salmaan, Prithviraj, Jayaram, Nedumudy Venu and Joy Mathew will take food orders from customers.

There is even talk of Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, taking an order or two.

How? Paramount has hired a mimicry artiste popular with expatriate Keralite through TV shows and YouTube to mimic the stars while taking a customer’s order.

“This is the first time that a restaurant here in Dubai is using this new technique to attract customers,” says Sharath Alappuzha, the mimicry artiste on the job.

“He has been my classmate and when I thought of opening a new restaurant, I wanted to use his talent somewhere and he suits our team,” said Rony Jose, Manager, Paramount.

“Last Friday, we had customers waiting and our lunch time is quite busy now,” he says, adding that Sharath has been receiving a good response.

Speaking to Emirates 24|7, Sharath said he can imitate 20-odd celebrities.

“We get Keralites, people from other parts of India and other nationalities like Filipinos.

“I will start using a superstar voice only after ensuring that the caller is a Keralite.

“They definitely like to speak to a celebrity for placing their order. I don’t want to embarrass customers who do not know these stars,” Sharath says, adding that he is planning to do an imitation of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan as well.