This February, Ajay Devgn landed in Bulgaria to shoot his second directorial, Shivaay, in a three month schedule. Located in the eastern Balkan Peninsula, bordering Greece and Turkey to the south, Macedonia and Serbia to the west and Romania to the north, the South-East European country is an unusual location for a Bollywood film shoot. So over to Ajay:

HINDI-BULGARIAN BHAI BHAI
I was looking for a world in transit and needed snow-capped peaks which were as accessible as an old city's cobbled streets. The story is set in Eastern Europe and Bulgaria's geographical location gave it a viable edge for ferrying a unit of 150-plus. Bulgarians are friendly people and most of them speak decent English. Our crew was drawn from different nationalities. By the time we wrapped up, they were all speaking Hindi.


GETTING CHEESY
I realized during the recce that the food there is to die for. I love the white cheese and the ripe tomatoes available through the year. Like India, Bulgaria has a tradition of re-harvesting seeds. Most of the local cuisine comes from organic veggies and meats. Serbian cuisine is also common there and when we craved for something spicy, we ate Turkish or Greek delicacies. Bulgaria's climate sets it apart from other cold countries. We shot in heavy snow as well as in spring. When it was cold, we shivered even with the heaters on. We wore locally bought snow shoes, and especially designed Indian jackets that the army wears in Siachen. And still shivered!


HERITAGE CENTRAL
The old city of Plovdiv is a visual delight, every frame looked spectacular. Also known as the City of Seven Hills, it is one of Europe's oldest and still-inhabited cities with a pulsating nightlife and the millennia-old ruins vying for your attention. Plovdiv is also Bulgaria's second most cosmopolitan city and will be the European capital of culture from 2019.

One of the big tourist attractions of the Iskar Gorge is the Prohodna Caves. They are a natural lava structure and popularly known as the Eyes of God Caves. You can see them in the Shivaay trailer. The wall I climbed with Abigail Eames, my child co-star in the film, is the outer ridge of the cave. It was really difficult shooting there. The crew took endless meters of electric cables into the cave to be able light it up. It's an eco-sensitive zone so we took a lot of precautions. On our final day at the Caves, we were suddenly hit by a hailstorm. It was bizarre even for the locals.


Sofia is the capital city and renowned for its St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It was built in honour of the Russian Emperor Alexander II whose army liberated Bulgaria of the five-century-long Ottoman Dominion in 1878. The Cathedral's gold-plated dome is 148 feet high, with the bell tower reaching 174 feet. Sofia City Court, also known as Sofiyski Gradski Sad, is a four-storey building (two underground floors) spreads over a 8,500 square metres with 24 courtrooms, a library and a bank hall.

FASHION FORWARD
Bulgaria's fashion had even a non-shopper like me buying shoes to bags to clothes. We were there for three months and it was the longest schedule of my career. It was exhausting, challenging and yet good fun. We fought a tough winter together and by the end of it, everyone on the set was saying “Namaste.“