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 pictures is Chandresh Bhatt who is the line  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 not too patiently. (Most of us have not the level of patience that Indians have…) Well, there were problems with permits to shoot from the famous 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. A small bus was sent to pick us up and drive to the Nehru Bridge connecting new and old Ahmedabad. You can get a taste from the pictures, but not of the blazing sun, total traffic congestion in both directions, people calling to the star, Murli Sharma for pictures, directions translated by Naraj, takes , retakes..running in the sun…I will just post pictures for you to see and your imagination will have to make the tapes 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 Pols 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.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 famous Gurarati step well to continue shooting. We were blown away finding out we had more than cameo appearance shots in this show. The well was the one where I am holding the baby in a previous post.I am including shots taken at the well for you to enjoy. Our episode will air on Sony TV on March 30 and 31^st.  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! Thanks to Erin for many of the pictures.

Post Script:  Several of the girls who were prominently showcased on this episode were taking a weekend trip in Rahjustan. As they walked through a market, they were greeted by several young Indian women who recognized them from the episode.  Isn’t that wild? And totally true. It must be very popular all over India…similar to the shows so popular in the US. Funny thing is that after watching the two night episode, Saturday and Sunday, we still didn’t know the story line…..but we were in it!