Thursday, November 14, 2024

‘Shooting in the picturesque location of Manali was liberating, yet challenging’

Must read

Actor and avid traveller Tahir Raj Bhasin, who was recently shooting in the serenity of Manali, speaks to The Pioneer on an exclusive chat, sharing his experience of shooting in the -5 degrees of Manali for Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein season 2.

Tejal Sinha
Travel, undeniably is a remarkable trip that allows us to explore and experience the world’s beauty and diversity. From the planning stages to the experiences created along the way, each step improves and broadens lives. Well, that’s what travelling is about for Tahir Raj Bhasin too, who was recently in the beautiful Manali ki Waadiyan, shooting for his much anticipated Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein.
The recent posts of the actor got us all craving a travel to the hill station, but meanwhile, we connected with him over a quick chat for our Travelogue segment.
“Travelling for me is as much about exploring new places as it is about exploring myself,” begins the Mardaani star on a brighter note. “It’s about new experiences in terms of not only the destination but also the conversations that you have with the people you meet; about the new food that you discover, the new cafés and sites give you a renewed appreciation for the experience of being alive.”
Shooting in Manali was more of a nostalgic experience and a feeling for Tahir, as it was a shoot again in Manali just as for the first season. However, shooting for the second season was different in it own way. “The situation back then was very different because we shot it in the midst of the pandemic, and so, this time, we had the freedom of not having the PPE kits or having just a number of people on the crew. This time around, it was very liberating but with the picturesque location came the challenges of temperatures. We were shooting in -5 degrees but the locations; how beautiful the place is and even the weather just added a level of drama to the series. We were all very very fortunate to be in such a picturesque location away from the head to be shooting a series that we’ve got so much love for.”
At a time when people all over the country, be it Hyderabad, Delhi, or Mumbai, among the others, for that matter were so done with the heat, Tahir happened to do his shoot in a chill weather and a beautiful serenity. But it was not how it seemed for him. “It was a love-hate relationship for me. It’s -5 degrees here (Manali). It takes your body at least three days to get used to that weather. It was very challenging initially because you can’t feel your fingertips, the dialogues don’t come right because you are stammering because of the cold, and the water in your eyes tends to freeze. But after your body adjusts to the climate, you dress appropriately with the correct and apt number of layers, you really start to enjoy the weather because it just adds to the overall drama of the show, eating is just so much more enjoyable in that weather. You have a renewed sense of appreciation when you come back to Bombay in May and you realise what you have left away. I would say what I really enjoyed in this trip were the sub-zero temperatures.”
Something that the Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein star enjoys, not only about Manali but any of the hill stations is the people; just incredibly calm and happy. It’s always awe-inspiring according to him to see that kind of presence and that kind of zen-like appreciation for life.
On the way back to Mumbai via Delhi, he also spent some time in Delhi, making him appreciate the weather back in Manali even more. Not only is it perfect weather for a crew, he says, to be functioning and controlling the temperament of the crew, but it also controls the energy levels. “It also controls how much better you eat in terms of like the fruits and vegetables you get over there but also the general sense of how easy it is. It’s like being in an entire city, which is like a large air-conditioned studio and it just makes for the most picturesque shooting and beautiful weather.”
 Again, he shares, “There are things about the weather like waking up at 4 in the morning in
-10 degrees to get ready for a 7 am shift that I will not miss. They were challenges as well but overall I would say that it was spectacular.”
Was it just a work trip, certainly not! “If you’ve got a beautiful location, you are going to a monastery then you spend some time going into it. So there were few of those moments that you otherwise have if you were shooting in the city where you manage to steal some time away for yourself and explore some local cuisine and some locations that you otherwise do not see in regular shooting life.”
A work trip or a vacay, sometimes staying at the right property too makes the trip worth the memory you can cherish. Speaking of the hotel hues, he describes. it to be just like a typical hill station than a hotel. “It was director Sidharth Sen Gupta’s choice. It was the staff that made us feel completely at home, and we would have the executive chef, who’d bring us their custom-made cuisines and food orders for us. It was a typical fireplace in the room with wooden flooring and slanted roofs, you had zero degrees outside. One of the things I always remember: Monkeys being constantly outside your windows. You can never leave any food on the table or on the bed for fear that they might enter your room. But it was quiet and homely, everything that you would expect in the middle of the mountains.”
Going further, a place that he enjoys and loves to visit to rejuvenate from the hassles of daily life and work has been Goa. “It’s always a place I go to rejuvenate when I’ve got some extended amount of time off just for the kind of beaches that you get, the different kind of activities that you get, rock climbing, amazing food at the diverse kind of restaurants that have now started opening up in Goa and you can go from a Kayaking to a yoga class and do everything on beautiful beaches, it’s just the complete package for me,” he shares adding the Ladakh according to him has been the unique place from anywhere else in world because of its beautiful lakes, amazing hikes and just by being the ‘heaven on earth.

- Advertisement -spot_img

More articles

- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest article