June 2, 2010

My experience of the TV shoot for a cookery show

Sometime in February, my cousin Rajesh called to ask if I would be ready to shoot for cookery show. At first I couldn't believe what he asked me and thought that he is just trying to pull my leg. But when later he told me the details, I understood he wasn't joking. The reference had come through Soori Etta (elder brother in Malayalam) , who is very well known to Rajesh. He has already done a shoot for the channel. The channel people were to come again for another shoot and they had asked Soori Etta if he can arrange for a shoot of Brahmin special cuisine. And when consulted with Rajesh, he had me in his mind and agreed then and there. Rajesh told me, the channel will intimate at least a week before the shoot. I didn't give much thought to it thinking there is no guarantee that they will come and since it is not a direct call from channel, I wasn't sure if it will happen. And told myself that in case it happens, I will have time to think of the dish and other things.



Cut to 28th May, 9:00 PM. Rajesh called me to ask I will be ready for the shoot the next day. The shoot will be in my home town, which is an hour travel from my home and should be there by 10:00 A.M. The call came when it was least expected and I had to tell him what I will prepare. The first thing that came to my mind was Uppittu and he, after consulting with his friend and confirmed it.

No instructions or guidelines whatsoever. I was left to decide on my own. I wasn't very sure if the crew will wait for the whole cooking process. Since I didn't have any of their contact numbers, I decided to go by my instinct. I prepared the dough and the filling and made 4 Uppitu before hand. Reached my home town by 9:30 loaded with all the ingredients, bowls etc.



Soori etta came home to check if everything was ready. He suggested that this one dish alone may not take more than 15 minutes of telecast time, so I can prepare one more dish. The time was already 11:30 a.m. The shoot was expected to begin by 1:00 PM. After some discussion, decided on Pulingari, which was special to Puthucode village. The next hour went in getting things and doing the necessary cooking for that.



The shoot was organised in our ancestral house. I was very happy that the shoot was held there where I have lived my childhood. We had a joint family system and the house was full of people and activity. And now, my father’s youngest brother stays there. I am happy that at least the house is retained as such. The channel people came at 2:00 p.m. They just let me go ahead. No instructions from their side. The anchor, Vijay, who is to engage me with his questions, during my cooking, asked some basic questions about the recipe. Both the dishes were completely new to him. The first few minutes, I was very conscious. But later on, when I started to explain the recipe, I forgot all about the shoot and was so engrossed in cooking and the conversation with the anchor. Anchor, Vijay was very spontaneous and lively. During the course of the shoot, he asked me about my blog.

He was very much surprised to know food blogs are very active. All in the entire shoot took 2 hours. The experience was new and I very much enjoyed. I expected to be more nervous. But I could pull it off much better than I expected. And once it is telecasted, it’s for the viewers to decide how well I have done it. It will take more than a month to telecast. I have never imagined myself on a cookery show. All thanks to Soori Etta and my cousin who were instrumental in getting the opportunity for me. The shoot was for the cookery show titled, ‘Swad’, a weekly show in Jai Hind channel (Malayalam) on Sunday 12:00 PM.








30 comments:

  1. It's like goin through the experience with you.well written post dear...

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  2. Congragulations, it was so nice reading your expirenc. And you were not nervous, i would have been dead nervous :-) pity we canot see the show.

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  3. Jayashree I relived your experience through your post, pity I can not understand malyalam but watcjing u will be fun, do let me know the date when the telecast's scheduled.

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  4. wowo..great..thats such a wonderful opportunity especially when you are a food blogger...good to hear your experience..

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  5. you could add the shoot video in your blog..

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  6. very nice to read about your experience, Jaya....and cogratulations, again....

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  7. WOW!! You are a TV star now, eh? That's wonderful. Wish I could watch it but I know I can't here.

    Congratulations. May be you can link the site if it's on the web for us to watch! :))

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  8. First time to ur space,wounderfull thoughts...Pls do visit my blog http://premascooking.blogspot.com

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  9. Congrats Jayasree.please let us know the telecast date in advance!!

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  10. Good job and well done:)
    Looking forward to viewers' comments too.
    I am so happy for you.

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  11. Wow Jayashree congrats.. nice writeup dear will catch the show on TV.

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  12. Lovely post. Congrats on getting featured in the show.

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  13. Enjoyed reading this post. Wish we got this channel here.

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  14. Congrats and wish I could see the channel, perhaps in U-tube?

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  15. Congratulations. That is some experience.

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  16. Congrats! I don't think we have that channel and I do not generally watch Malayalam channels but do keep me posted. It will be so good to watch you on TV:).

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  17. Congrats, keep rocking..very eager to watch it..

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  18. Lovely to read abt your experience jayasree..wish we could see the show.

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  19. Congrats, nice to know abt ur experience, recipe sounds delicious.

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  20. Wonderful.. would love to watch..

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  21. Congrats dear, nice experience....

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  22. Thank you friends for your wishes. I shall intimate when I get to know the telecast date. For all those who will not able to watch the show, I hope I can get the show recorded and upload in you tube.

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  23. hey thylam.. congrats... sorry for the delay in reading. u too didn intimate when we talked twice. any way.. eagerly waitin for the show

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  24. Awesome experience!
    Do pass on the youtube link

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  25. Great to read about your experience, congratulations ! Awesome that you did not get nervous, I know I would have been :-)

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  26. hello..saw ur prog on jaihind via youtube..was really nice..u handled it wonderfully and as usual ur recipe was excellent..

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