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 