First Posted on March 22, 2013by annetbell
It all began when our group was invited to a wedding reception here in Ahmedabad way back in January.
We were included because one of the student’s uncle extended the invitation to us. The man with me in the first pictures is Chandresh Bhatt who is the producer for the episode in which we will appear. He also writes and directs on other episodes of this popular crime show. 
The show’s name is Shapath-Sabse Badi Talaash which is available on Google, YouTube, and Facebook. Chandresh came to our hostel to invite us to play ourselves….tourists in India. Monday was to be our first day, so not much studio work was done as we waited and waited and not very patiently. (Most of us have not the level of patience that Indians have…) Well, there were problems with permits to shoot being held up by the infamous Indian bureaucracy. We have dealt with them so we completely understood. Shooting would be on Tuesday. David was still feeling under the weather and some of the students decided not to be a part of the “shoot,” on the that day. We were a small but enthusiastic group. 
A small bus was sent to pick us up and drive to the Nehru Bridge which connects new and old Ahmedabad. You can get a taste from the pictures, but not of the blazing sun, traffic totally stopping in both directions, people calling to the star, Murli Sharma for pictures, directions translated by Naraj, ( the student in our group who speaks Gujurati,) takes , retakes..running in the sun…
I will just post pictures for you to see and your imagination will have to make the tape roll. The guy in the orange shirt is Murli, the star..diva really with an umbrella over his head when not on camera, a make-up man in tow, a director’s chair for him to sit in…and endless cell phone conversations!
From there we went to the Polls or old town. The last scene shot was in a 500 year old temple. One funny thing that happened was that the director called for costume changes before the temple scene! We were dressed as tourists, cameras, jeans, hats…we brought nothing to change into. A helper was sent to a nearby shop and came back with armloads of Indian clothes for us! The kids were allowed to keep their costume change as a souvenir. Nothing in my size. 
Our first day went from 9:30 until almost 6 PM after much waiting around. We thanked everyone, got some shots with the star, the director, and producer and left thinking our adventure was over. 
But the next day, Chandresh called to ask us to go in the afternoon to a the famous Gurarati Adalaj Step well to continue shooting. We were blown away finding out we had more than cameo appearance shots in this show.Several of the students had a line or two of dialogue. 
I am including shots taken at the well for you to enjoy. Our episodes aired on Sony TV on March 30 and 31st. This was such an unexpected experience and the Indians were so kind and friendly, making it be a very special memory, one we will never forget! Thanks Chandresh! Nameste….T I I I
Thanks to Erin for many of the pictures.
Post Script to the original . This is hard to believe but honestly it happened. Three of the girls who had been in the TV show were traveling in the north, Rajasthan, when several young Indian women recognized them from the show as they shopped in a bazaar. Of course, they approached the students, remember Indians are not shy. They really were “stars’ and quite memorable.
This is a group of students who waited quietly and patiently for us to finish the shoot before they continued their tour of the well. 
TalesAlongTheWay 
How fortunate for you to have this experience — just getting to know the people better would have been worth the whole thing for me. Wow!
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It was one of those unexpected
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Oops. . . .sent too quickly. We never could have imagined those two days and none of us had ever had an experience like that. Another adventure in India. I have a post about Chandresh which will will reblog soon. I still hear from him occasionally and he sends photographs from wherever he is shooting. . . mostly Bollywood films.
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What an exciting time you had–you rock the hat, btw!
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Daughter gave it to me for India. Think it is Smith and Hawkin gardening hat .you need one girl !
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I’m always on the lookout for new hats! I just watched Life of Pi last night and thought of you. Have you ever seen The Namesake? One of my favorite movies–I sobbed all night after watching it because I fell in love with the family so much and hated to see it all end.
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Love, love, love Life of Pi. It opens in Pondicherry, one of my favorite cities on the south trip. It was under the French rule until the 60s and the old city has the French Colonial city plan of Montreal. Understood it immediately. Also of the elephant who blesses the tourists with a pat on the head!
I looked up ‘Namesake’ . . . . hadn’t seen it or even heard of it. Sounds terrific! Thanks for the tip!
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How fun is that! Can I have your autograph? 😉
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Can’t figure out how to do that . . .here is a kiss instead! X
😎
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hehe
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😀
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Thanks!
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You never told me you were a movie star Anne. Such fun. I have watched several Indian movies with Niv and they are so much fun to watch, with people suddenly dancing and singing in the middle of a serious scene. I love them. Always so light hearted and so much fun to watch.
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Yes indeed. We saw one in India called Shootout somewhere. All of a sudden they all stopped , dropped the guns , danced together , then picked up the guns and started shooting again. Chandresh says Indian people go to films to forget the challenges of their lives and they love dancing.
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So lucky!!! What a great experience you got there!
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The whole 4 months were an adventure, but this is near the top of the list, since most tourists don’t get to do anything comparable~ Smiles. . . .
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