At the end of my last trip to India I had written:
“Leaving India tomorrow and although I love India it is really time to just get the heck out of here. I’m tired of the crowds and the traffic, tired of malnourished children or people with 2 or more serious deformities hovering all over the street asking for money, tired of being stared at by gross men, tired of yelling all day every day and just plain tired.”
This trip has been different. My last two weeks in India are summarized by the photographs below of the beach in front of the resort and palace grounds which are five minutes away from where we were housed.
What do these two pictures have in common?
Vijay Vilas Palace grounds
The beach.
1st guess:
They are both taken on the property of Vijay Vilas Palace in Gujarat, India where I was working on an Indy flick for about two weeks.
That was the easy answer….now look closer.
What I am getting at is what you don’t see —
There are no people! No crowds, smog or pollution! Quiet stretches of clean nature and serene surroundings.
The Vijay Vilas establishment, also the location of the epic Lagaan is on private land so is isolated from the common experience of India. While staying there every day I got to run, walk or do yoga on an empty beach and let myself be bored in the quiet without internet or phone. When we began filming the big extravaganza scenes which included the use of 150 extras, two camels and a floating jetty the experience began to feel a bit more familiar. Still, after we wrapped the camels, people and set left the scene and we were again alone with a lot of sand and stars to contemplate.
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