One Weekend with the Stars in Mumbai

This weekend we decided to escape from the boring everyday life in our beloved place of Valsad. We this was Ida, Valentin and me, the three trainees from Europe and Badal, one of our chiefs in the company.
At around 5:30 PM finally we left the office heading towards Mumbai. We were going in Badal’s Toyoto Corolla what is a very good car on Indian roads. During the whole ride to Mumbai we were driven by two questions: Will we reach the club before closure time? And: Was it a good decision to go on car? It was Friday night and if you have bad luck you can easily spend 7 hours or more for the 180 kilometres to Mumbai. So Badal was driving his car as fast as the traffic situation allowed him to drive, overtaking right and left and wherever space was available. But every time when a brainless Indian truck driver who was just about to overtake another truck with a heartbreaking speed of 30 kilometres per hour was stopping us we were worried about our schedule.
Finally all the excitement was to no purpose, we reached our destination at 10:30 PM and even our stomachs could be satisfied on the way with a fabulous Non-Veg dinner.

We went to Poison, probably one of the best nightclubs in Mumbai with lots of sexy and dressed up Indian beauties and a 5 star ambience. Even Bollywood stars are a regular sight in Poison. And this is how the prices are over there, 20 € for entrance and 12 € just for a Wodka Redbull – more than a monthly salary of many Indians.
Anyway, this night we were in another India, hanging out with some of the hottest chic’s and the high society of Mumbai. The DJ was really good and we partied hard. Music was up-to-date as far as I can say. At least we have not been bothered with Backstreet Boys and Eifel 65 and all the other stars that seem to rock the Valsad Western Top 20 right now.
So we had a very good party… till 1:30 AM. It was just 1:30 and then the surprise… light on, music off – the club closes. We were just thinking what the shit is this… but well this is Mumbai. Most of clubs close 1:30 or even earlier as there are lot’s of restrictions by the local government.
Anyway we enjoyed and our boss was so kind to give us the Sunday off as we were intending to go for more party next night but when we were about to go for dinner we met one guy from the Bollywood film industries.

Already in my Lonely Planet Guide Book I have read that it could happen that you are being hired for a Bollywood film shoot when you are hanging out in Mumbai but I did not really expect that this would happen to us. But well, this trip to India is so full of surprises and unexpected things and this was just another unexpected experience we dumped in.
It was not a big Bollywood movie, just a soap for what they’ve hired us. The shoot took place in a shopping mall which has been turned into an airport. For the first few hours it was our job to just walk around and give the “airport” and international flair. For the last shots I have been turned into a steward. My suit did not fit me at all but obviously this was not very important. They are just crazy about westerners appearing on the camera, that’s all. We definitely had an interesting and funny experience also the story and set up was extremely kitschy.