Entertaining Moments in India

That last entry was repetitive, I know, but I wanted to show what a recruiting tour like this feels like at its worst - fair after fair after fair after fair. There have however, been some entertaining moments to help break up the monotony...



First we have the tour of Bollywood, the center of India's film industry, which is the largest in the world. That clip shows a nightclub set where they are preparing to film a bar/dance scene. The girl in the black dress on the right at the end of the clip (I know it's fuzzy) is the female lead. Here are two stills - one of the dance set, and a close-up of two starlets.





Our 15 minutes on-set was the only good part of the "tour." 4/5ths of our time was spent in transit (horrible traffic, that is) betweens the stops. At the same locations as the nightclub set, we saw a variety of other sets not currently being used. Actually, some looked (and smelled) like they had not been used in years. We had lunch at a Chinese chain restaurant that our guide tried to tell us was popular with Bollywood types (yeah, right). Finally we went to a minor post-production facility where they do editing and visual effects. Nothing spectacluar, especially considering the university I work for. Not once did we actually step foot in Film City proper. I got the feeling it was just a hastily arranged sequence meant to fleece us of our money.

OK, cheer up, here is another view of the elephant walking down the busy street in Pune...



And a colorful shot from our bus of a market in Bangalore...