Gaurav's romantic encounters at Taj Mahal

Girls are going bananas over Samay of 'Aisa Des Hai Mera'. Gaurav Chopra who essays the role of Samay can be best described as the tall, dark and handsome hero of a girlie novel. Recently the guy shot in Agra at the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri for his serial. He gives an account of his experience:

First TV serial at the Taj

Television doesn't function with such extravagant outdoors. Someone for the first time has shot at the Taj Mahal for a television serial. It means a lot of hassles, permissions etc. We were in a bit of a haze as we hadn't slept for 2-3 nights before going there as we were canning episodes for the coming days. It didn't sink in till we actually reached there. I was going to see the Taj Mahal for the first time. You have seen it a million times in pictures and books but when you see in front of you for the first time, your heart jumps from the left to the right and then returns to the left. And you say 'Whoa'! I was quite saddened by how dirty and chaotic the approach road to the Taj is. People from all over the world come to see it and this is how we present it.

Shooting at the monument

We started the shoot at 6.30 so the whole place was engulfed in the morning mist. It was like a dream sequence. Once we started shooting, a lot of tourists and local people came to know and they mobbed us. It was really amazing the way people respond to you in a small town. They were all over the place, shouting out our names and trying to attract attention. They were holding books, paper and even their hands out for autographs. I felt like a super star initially and the whole thing was quite heady, but after a while it started to distract me from my work and that's when I wanted to be left alone. We went to Fatehpur Sikri too. It was a bit awkward for my co-star Saumya as when I embraced her there this huge crowd was watching a shouting our names. There we were trying to do this super-romantic sequence and we have hundreds of people staring at us.

Spanish encounters

The foreigners at the monuments thought we will start singing and dancing a la Bollywood. There was this bunch of four pretty Spanish girls that thought that I was a Latino. They talked to me in Spanish and how I wished I knew the language. Luckily, they were also at my hotel and post work I chilled out with them.