After watching LSD I first met Anshuman when we had a fun Close Up encounter about Bollywood, Romance and PDA and then we discovered we’re both Allahabadi’s and now we’re bonded for life 🙂 So I asked him if he’d tell us some fun stuff about his Tata Sky campaign series and he agreed, see? Poochne Mein Kya Jaata Hai! xoxo

1) Poochne mein kya jaata hai?

A commonly asked question, what was the need to shoot these ads in Europe and where were they shot? Well, it was shot in Bulgaria, a country in Eastern Europe and a stunning one at that! The reason for shooting abroad was that it was the only place in the world where army tanks are allowed to come inside the capital city (Sophia) for a film shoot! And I was the lucky one standing on top! So the tank, 1000 parading soldiers and another 100 extras were used in the “Tank” film. It was huge and it fired Silver at the Abbys!

2) Poochne mein kya jaata hai?The Bank Robbery film was shot inside the National Library of Bulgaria in Sophia which we converted into a bank. The things we do!

3) Poochne mein kya jaata hai?

The “Dog” film was originally supposed to be shot with ferocious Rottweilers (beautiful dogs) and a day prior to shoot, we went to meet the two chosen terrors. I guess my affinity with canines got the better of me and we became friends.

Such good friends in fact that they refused to bark, which is what they are supposed to do in the ad! Finally they were replaced by German Shepherds and Prasad did a marvelous job with this one.

4) Poochne mein kya jaata hai?

The General, who agrees to give me a lift in the tank film, resembles Kratos from God of War (The Play Station Game). Well at least I think so. Do you see it? I actually asked him if he’s a big fan of the game, maybe its rubbed off?!

5) Poochne mein kya jaata hai?

The Director, Vivek Kakkad, is an absolute dream for an actor. He would never cut the shot and kept asking for variations till we ran out of steam. (PS. – we shot 79 cans in 3 days. A lot of Bollywood films get made in 100-120 cans over 30 days.)

6) Bataane mein kya jaata hai?!

This Poochne mein hya jaata hai campaign won Gold, Silver and Bronze at the Abby’s in 2012. O&M was the agency.

7.) Poochne mein kya jaata hai?

The campaign was shot by the awesome Tassadduq Hussain – one of the most sought after DOP’s in the ad world and a gem to work with. He was the man behind the Camera for Vishal Bharadwaj‘s Omkara and Kaminey too! It was my second campaign with him, he had earlier shot the Pepsi Change The Game campaign with me and Kevin Pietersen.

8) Poochne mein kya jaata hai?

Prasad Barwe, my co-actor in the campaign and I hadn’t ever worked together before. But we finally did and hit it off instantly! An actor par excellence and an absolute pleasure to work with. He hates impromptu things (that means trips) but I forced him to take one with me to the highest peak in Eastern Europe – Mount Vitosha. And boy did he enjoy himself! Here we are standing on the highest peak at 7,513ft.

9) Poochne mein kya jaata hai?

Our characters in the film are called Sonu & Cookie. Take a guess whose who? Every frame in these ads were storyboard-ed and wow did the storyboard artists do a good job!

10) Poochne mein kya jaata hai?

I do use TataSky and am really happy with it and yes, TataSky offers a variety of fabulous schemes which you can easily avail of so please ask and you’ll be surprised! Because “poochne mein kya jaata hai” 🙂 Here’s the latest advert in the new series!

Love,
From the TataSky Boy!