32 years later, the kitchen gets smarter: From Khana Khazana to ‘Khana Dil Se’, Hansal Mehta adds AI to the menu.
Mumbai, 24th March, 2026: Collective Studios has partnered with True Story Films, founded by filmmaker Hansal Mehta and producer Sahil Saigal, to announce ‘Khana Dil Se’- An AI Journey Through India’s Kitchen. The newly released teaser offers a first look at a distinctive episodic series exploring India’s culinary heritage through the lens of artificial intelligence.
For Mehta, Khana Dil Se marks a return to the terrain where he first made his mark. In the early 1990s, he created Khana Khazana, the pioneering cookery show that turned Chef Sanjeev Kapoor into a household name and changed the way India thought about food on screen. Three decades later, Mehta returns to food, this time with AI as his collaborator.
Taking to Instagram, Hansal Mehta shared the teaser of ‘Khana Dil Se’ saying, “32 years ago, I created Khana Khazana. The nation cooked with a phenomenon called Sanjeev Kapoor. The rest as they say is history! Today, I return with Khana Dil Se — recipes from the heart of India. This isn’t just a food show. It’s a journey into India’s homes — through its recipes first, and the memories, traditions, and quiet poetry that live within them. In collaboration with Chef Shamsher Ahmed, we bring you some of our most cherished dishes — and the cultures that shaped their flavours. And this time, I have a new creative partner. AI. Helping us bring you recipes from India’s kitchens, and sharing a glimpse of the diverse culture behind them.”
Joining him in this new endeavour is Indian Master Chef Shamsher Ahmed, who comes on board as subject matter expert and culinary consultant. Ahmed’s decades-long experience across Indian regional cuisines will lend authenticity and rigour to the series as it navigates the country’s vast and varied food traditions.
At its heart, ‘Khana Dil Se’ is a cultural exploration of India through its kitchens, tracing stories of migration, memory, and identity through recipes passed down across generations. What distinguishes the series is its use of AI, not just as a visual and imagination tool, but as a collaborator in the storytelling itself: helping trace culinary lineages, uncover regional influences, and follow the journeys of dishes as they have travelled and transformed across communities and centuries. Khana Dil Se reclaims food as a living cultural heritage.
Speaking about the show, Hansal Mehta said, “Food is memory. When you cook something from another culture, you’re not just following a recipe, you’re stepping into a piece of someone else’s life. A recipe carries within it an entire history: of land, of migration, of a grandmother’s hands. These are probably humanity’s most durable cultural documents, passed down through generations, across borders, surviving when almost nothing else does. That’s what makes food such an honest way to look at people and who they really are. With Khana Dil Se, we want to use every tool available to us, including AI, to trace those stories before they disappear.”
Producer Sahil Saigal, a hotel management alumnus of Les Roches, Switzerland, and a restaurateur himself, added, “Khana Dil Se gave us a chance to ask what food television could look like if AI were part of the process – not replacing the human story, but helping us reach deeper into it. There are culinary traditions across India that have never been documented. This is our attempt to find them.”
Vijay Subramaniam, Founder and Group CEO of Collective Artists Network, said, “At Collective, we’ve always believed that storytelling evolves with the tools available to us. India’s culinary traditions are among the richest cultural archives in the world, yet so many of these stories remain undocumented. Khana Dil Se brings together creators, filmmakers, and technologists to surface those stories in a way that hasn’t been attempted before.”
- Produced by True Story Films in collaboration with Collective Artists Network’s Collective Studios, Khana Dil Se – An AI Journey Through India’s Kitchen is a first-of-its-kind series that brings together culinary heritage and artificial intelligence to tell the story of India through its food.
Author: Aman Deep Walia
Aman Deep Walia Founder/Editor-In-Chief Amanopedia News Aman Deep Walia, also known as Aadi, is an Indian media entrepreneur, actor, producer, writer, and director based in Mumbai, India. As the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AMANOPEDIA News, he leads a fast-growing digital entertainment platform delivering verified industry updates, celebrity features, and cultural commentary across web and social media. With creative credits spanning films, theatre, and advertising. Aman brings a multidisciplinary perspective to storytelling. His work reflects a commitment to authenticity, versatility, and audience-driven narratives across genres. Beyond performance and production, he is actively engaged as a journalist and digital content creator, bridging mainstream cinema with emerging media formats. He has also contributed as a casting director and lyricist, further expanding his creative footprint within the Indian entertainment landscape. Through AMANOPEDIA, Aman Deep Walia continues to position himself at the intersection of journalism, cinema, and digital innovation.
