Depp celebrates trial win with a feast of 'authentic Indian cuisine' worth Rs 48 lakh

Actor Johnny Depp, who last week was awarded $15 million in a defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, shelled out more than $62,000 (over Rs 48 lakh) for a feast of “authentic Indian cuisine,” cocktails and rosé champagne at the Varanasi restaurant in UK’s Birmingham, reports the New York Post.

At this special celebratory curry dinner on Sunday evening, Depp, 58, and his friends munched on dishes such as curry, cheesecake, butter chicken and shish kebabs.

A private dinner

The 400-seater, 20,000-square-foot restaurant was closed so that Depp and his friends could eat in private.

Also read: Jury sides with Johnny Depp on lawsuit, Amber Heard on counterclaim

“We had a call out of the blue on Sunday afternoon saying that Johnny Depp wanted to come to eat with a group of people,” Mohammed Hussain, operations director of Varanasi, told the Post.

“I was shocked, and at first, I thought it might have been a wind up [joke]. But then his security team arrived [and] checked out the restaurant, and we let them have the whole place because we were concerned that he might be bothered by other diners,” he added.

Hussain described how the chefs prepared a feast for the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star that included delicacies such as shish kebabs, chicken tikka, paneer tikka masala, lamb karahi and tandoori king prawns.

The feast ended with simple cheesecake and panna cotta for dessert.

A lovely, down-to-earth bloke’

The executive also shed some light on the evening, saying that Depp was a “very lovely, down-to-earth bloke.”

“[He] spent a lot of time speaking with the staff, our friends and family and was happy to pose for pictures with them,” Hussain gushed.

“We made more money from Depp’s visit than we did from our busiest night of the week, which is a Saturday when we have around 400 diners,” he said.

Mr Depp stayed there for around three hours and met the manager’s friends and family, then left with a takeaway bag, metro.co.uk reported.

The star was hanging out with musician friend and guitarist Jeff Beck, 77, and 20 other people. Depp has been in the United Kingdom since before the verdict and also performed along with Beck.