Ania's Smirnoff Ten Blog

Mumbai is not like the rest of India. It is a one in a million kind of place, and definitely worth going to experience it. It is not to hide that the city is very challenging and can be intense. Imagine having 16 million inhabitants and rising, all living and working on a not so spacious peninsula. This then increases the levelof intensity, bringing more and more people together in many different ways and also adding to the city's brilliance.

The Hindu population great commitment (wearing traditional clothing, practising customs such as vegetarianism (in fast food restaurants you get a veggie and chicken burger only, no beef as this is a sacred animal) :)
Many things were really new to us and we had to ask a lot of questions
and not just the basic language things.

Real estate prices in Mumbai are reaching numbers of the ones in NY or London, the economy is growing very fast, Mumbai is 'the place to be for the investment, being the financial capital of India. The paradox is that right now we didn’t see that development or people who create it .
The place which appeared to be like a spot out of different world, accumulating many creative minds was 'Zenzi' bar. We as Smirnoff Ten were honoured to hold an exhibition of our best travel – night life photography. DJane NAME was apparently the best feminine house music dj from the indian scene. The guests were some celebrities like famous photomodel Carol, some TV faces, photographers, artists, foreign and local musicians. And the feedback was very positive. The main attraction of the afternoon was that a kind of auction. Everybody who liked any photograph, wrote his/hers on a paper next to it and at the end of the event, we chose one name to get a picture.

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On another occasion to experience some more of India, we were invited to glimpse into the Bollywood Studios. They are located in the suburbs of Bombay between woody hills. Driving down empty, quite narrow asphalt roads you can see in a distance different wooden 'fortresses'. From outside you just see huge construction, which may consist a whole 'fake' town inside. These are the film sets. They are kept in secret one from another, as there are many productions being filmed simultanously. And each of them is worth millions of dollars.
That is why we were not allowed to take photographs on the set, with cute fake, but 'real' perspective painted city panorama.

A sign on the entrance gate to one of the sets.

The stongest moment was to meet the big stars - ... They do emanate a noble kind of energy. We felt honoured to meet idols of so many people. It was a special moment.