Virgin Media launchs 'Bollywood on Demand' Service
(10 July 2008)

Virgin Media, part of Richard Branson's media empire, has launched its Bollywood On Demand Service in the UK by commissioning celebrity chef Vivek Singh to cook-up 'The Bollywood Burner', supposedly the world's hottest curry. With a range of different chillies, a sprinkling of some of the world's spiciest seeds and a world record-breaking pepper, diners must sign a disclaimer before eating the dish!

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.

Virgin Media commissioned the 'Bollywood Burner' to celebrate the launch of its Bollywood Movies On Demand service giving Bollywood fans access to over 30 movies to watch whenever they choose. Starting at £2 per film, the selection will include a mixture of the latest Bollywood blockbusters such as 'Jodhaa Akbar' and 'Race' alongside popular classics such as 'Life In a .... Metro' starring Shilpa Shetty.

The 'Bollywood Burner', a lamb-based dish, was created by Vivek Singh, executive chef of The Cinnamon Club restaurant and the recipe will be submitted to the Guinness Book of Records for verification as the world's hottest curry. Inspired by Hyderabadi cooking, the dish contains:

• 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."

For more information on Virgin Media's Bollywood On Demand, click below: www.virginmedia.com/ondemand