The King of Bollywood & The Game of Thrones

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“You cannot take photographs here. It is not possible”. The words of wisdom ushered forth from a security guard in Croatia’s most photographed city – Dubrovnik. We had stumbled on a film set of action scenes featuring the world’s richest actor. Brad Pitt? Harrison Ford? There was no sign of anybody remotely familiar. I asked what the fuss was all about. The film was a major Bollywood production - Fan. The richest movie star – Shah Rukh Kahn . Who? Exactly. A man with 12.7 million followers on Twitter. SRK to his friends. We have history with Bollywood, but that was restricted to an appearance at The Odeon, Georgetown, Penang, where in all honesty we were more of an attraction than the film for most of the audience. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Penang/George-Town/blog-127519.html

So I had just photographed a major world superstar without realising it or had I? All would be revealed in due course.

We had caught the express bus to Dubrovnik. Express is a relative word though? It was 4 ½ hours down the coast from Split and rather than a motorway, it was the long and winding road. The Cazmatrans Dalmatia vehicle was fairly comfortable and at a convenient time and the long and winding road was a spectacular trip. The mountains to the left and the sea and Croatian islands to the right. The bus hugged the coast south, on through the Split hinterlands and on to the holiday zone of the Makarska Riveria. We passed the scene of our Division 3 game the previous day at Stobrec. A series of small harbours contained the summer Croatia – charter yachts moored up awaiting their first customers of the new season. The sun was shining, but it was pleasant rather than warm. The bus was only about a quarter full. There was much snapping by the Japanese love birds, keen to add the interior of a coach to their photographic collection.

The scenery was pretty much unchanged until the section of the journey near Bacina, where an aluminium plant and some dubious looking flats rendered the coastline an unattractive venue for tourists. There was short break at the bus station in Ploce, the crossroads for buses to Mostar and Sarajevo. The toilet attendant relived her communist youth, by insisting on adhering to the protocol of not allowing admission until the relevant token had been exchanged for cash and duly dispensed. Lidl had seen the prospects for the gateway town of Ploce and were finishing off their new store on the edge of town. The art of large painted advertising, specialised by those responsible for the Hajduk symbols all over Dalmatia, was in full flow and a group sat on the roof carefully finalising the large Lidl symbol. The coastline had been littered by large Hajduk painted badges on every suitable piece of concrete, which highlighted what a big deal they were as the club of Dalmatia.

The next stretch of the journey was across the delta where the River Neretva. Meets the coast. This was the centre of the orange universe. Stalls of ripe fruit were positioned every 100 metres or so. There was a minor delay at the border with Bosnia, whilst the border police awoke from their slumber. The police entered the bus and paid a cursory glance to random passports. A stamp was not on offer, which made me sad and relieved at the same time. The border police into Bosnia from Serbia a couple of years back had taken all the documents away to the office, which always makes me nervous and the nearest town of size Ploce didn’t seem the most likely place to find a British Consulate for a replacement.

The Bosnian coast is a blink and you miss it stretch. It is for all purposes part of Croatia. The population appears to be Bosnian Croat. Kuna are accepted and are readily accepted for all major Croat beer brands. After the Balkan War, Bosnia was promised some coastline and Neum. is it. It now seems to operate as an alternative to the Croatian holiday resorts further up and down the coast and as a bus stop. We were soon back in Croatia with the minimum of fuss.

A futuristic bridge spelled the gateway to Dubrovnik. We pulled off the main highway and headed down towards the water and the port of Gruz, where the bus station was located. An old man offered us accommodation, proudly pointing to the recommendation in a Lonely Planet guide. I am sure it was very nice, but the Lonely Planet guide looked like it had met many buses since it was printed in 1995. We were already accommodated a few minutes walk away. It had been a deliberate decision based on some of the prices noted in the centre of Dubrovnik and the ease of access from the bus station. The hotel was owned by an extended family, who had returned from a period of making good and money in Sydney. We had a newly refurbished room with sea view and a small balcony at a fair price. The walk to town (or bus if you prefer) was a small price to pay for the additional comfort and space.

We set off for a reconnaissance of the Old Town in Dubrovnik. The walk took us about 35 minutes. After the initial stretch from Gruz along the flat, Dubrovnik it was a long drag up the hill. The Old Town is surprisingly non-visible from this direction. We considered a small refreshment, but instantly aghast by inflation that seemed to have crept into prices since Split opted to continue into the walled city. In Split, 18-20 Kuna would get you a large beer in even the bars with scenery on the Riva. In Dubrovnik, the cheapest back street bar or down in Gruz would set back more than that. The descent from our chosen Gate was steep. This was the cheap price area of the Old Town. The prices on the “main” street within the Old Town would make your eyes water and make drinking in London look like a bargain. The ironic thing was that a lot of business were still closed for the winter break and had made quite enough thank you very much during the summer months. A winter in Australia had obviously beckoned. We had a preliminary stroll round and made the decision that the Dubrovnik Card was a wise investment for the following day. As well as a number of museums, the 150 Kuna gave you 24 hours on the local bus and free entry to the City Walls. The City Walls alone would have been 100 Kuna, so the other attractions even if not the greatest only represented an additional small investment. It had been a long day, so we opted to head back to Gruz, where food options could be cheaper.

After a hearty breakfast at the hotel with another branch of the extended family who had acquired a thick Australian accent – freshly cooked omelettes or an egg and bacon special among the choices – we utilised our bus pass part of the Dubrovnik Card to get into the Old Town for 9 o’clock. After an hour so in the Rector's Palace, we ventured to the Maritime Museum. Dubrovnik might be essentially be a medieval city, but had quite an extensive merchant fleet registered until recent times. The museum ran through the history of seafaring from Dubrovnik, all the way to 20^th century fleet. A number of ship models and portraits adorned the upper galleries. We noted with interest the large number of purchases from Tyneside, Wearside and Teesside. It was time to venture on to the City Walls.

The City Walls allegedly have 10 million visitors a year. Fortunately, they were not all there on our visit and no more than a couple of hundred were evident on our full length circumnavigation. The red roofs dominate the view. Today, there was additional interest below. The Fan movie crew were hard at work doing what movies crews do – looking busy and drinking lattes. There was no immediate sign of the Indian Tom Cruise - Shah Rukh Kahn - on set. The Bollywood film scouts had chosen Dubvrovnik for the high octane energy scenes of Fan and were in town for 9 days. The budget was reputed to be 1.1 million Euros for this section of the shoot. I leaned over the walls and point my lense in the general direction. The now familiar words were uttered - “You cannot take photographs here. It is not possible”. The body doubles were doing some warm up exercises and the film security was keen to ensure that the plot remained secret. We retreated to another vantage point, as the directors harried the extras into the correct location for the motorbike chase scene. A member of the paparazzi – armed with his mega lense and motor drive - loitered behind us, keeping away from the edge of the walls so as not to attract the attention of the security guys below. The motorbike scene was a chase along the harbour edge with a few stunts to make it look like the random extras were in peril and had to jump to safety. The paparazzi man waited his moment and captured a series of photographs to depict events. A google search of Fan Dubrovnik images will reveal all. We continued round the Walls, which offers excellent views over the city and the island of Lokrum. The number of people walking around grew steadily as the morning progressed. You wouldn't fancy it in summer or in wet weather, when you could imagine the unsteady on their feet making a hefty claim on the their travel insurance to repair the odd limb.

We descended and utilised the remainder of our Dibrovnik Card museum pass on some of suspect quality, before heading off to the last port of call at the Art Gallery. It too was a wee bit underwhelming, but there was decent view from the balcony of the old Italianate villa. I spied the Hotel Belvedere in the distance, from where I had ascertained the best pictures could be obtained the following day. The Bollywood boys on the Fan set were closing down for the day when we got back to town and by chance we came across the great man himself - Shah Rukh Khan - just prior to him hiding away in his Merc limo for his transport back to the hotel or wherever Bollywood stars hang out in Dubrovnik. I guess he could afford the prices. It was ironic that he didn't bat an eye lid when I strode forward to take his picture, so there was no repeat of "you can take pictures here". In reality, I couldn't see whether he batted an eye lid, as he kept his aviator sunglasses on and continued smoking his fag! I checked the camera. Yes, definitely him - or he has more than one body double.

The following morning we used the last of our 24 hour bus pass to the terminus near the Art Gallery and carried on walking on to the headland. The iconic photos of Dubrovnik are shot on early sunny mornings in this vicinity. The weather alas was mixed. The Hotel Belvedere would be interesting enough in it's own right, as a relic of the Balkan War. Shelled by the JNA in the conflict, the hotel has laid derelict ever since. The Game of Thrones addicts will know it as a set location from Series 4. Bollywood was not the first to discover Dubrovnik and various places seem like the holy grail for those in pursuit of film locations. This was Kings Landing. We duly arrived to be foiled by the scourge of the property developer. A Russian billionaire has just invested a small fraction of his wealth in the site. The original estimate was 24 million Euros, but a sole bid of 12 million was enough to secure one of the better views in Europe. There are plans to turn it into a 7 star hotel. The guy was obviously bored with his collection of Faberge eggs and didn't follow the role model of buying a top European football club. The security camera trained upon us and the polite suggested a wander on this piece of real estate might not be in your best interests. Disappointed, we walked back to town and took the cable car to the heights above the city.

It was a view and a half, although there was a slight haze - more evident on the photos than in real life. An old fort housed a series of war photos, but we opted to just walk past it to the top of the summit. Trenches lined the hillside. It had a feel of Gallipoli about it. Dubrovnik must have made a pretty easy to target to shell from the heights. The other half suggested we lingered in an expensive cafe for while, which allowed us to avoid taking a cable car back down with a confused group of shuffling folk. The afternoon was spent on the Lapad peninsula - Dubrovnik's more modern side and a resort for those that would never afford the Belvedere. We had been recommended a pizza venue, which turned out to be one of the better bargains in town. I couldn't resist a look inside the Gradski Stadium, home of the not so mighty GOSK Dubrovnik. We sat for a while on the harbour wall. The futsal experience in Split had not discouraged the other half too much and without much persuasion was signed up for an international match (or two). The qualifying tournaments for UEFA 2016 Serbia were in small groups and Dubrovnik was home to that for Turkey, Slovakia, Armenia and importantly, Croatia. Security was tight. The bottle of water was duly not allowed in, but rather surprisingly the Orla Kiely hand gel was deemed an offensive weapon. Was it flamable? Was it mistaken for a mini flare? Anyway it was retained for later collection. We assigned the Croatian policewoman to guard it with her life. The futsal was in a different league to the Torcida - Genius efforts, but there were only 2 teams ever going to win the respective games - Croatia and Slovakia. They would meet in a head to head later in the week. A healthy crowd was in for the Croatia game, although no "away"fans seem to have made the trip at either game.

Appendix 1

Vrsta utakmice: Kvalifikacije za EURO
Kolo: 1.kolo, Glavna runda
Datum: 18.03.2015.
Vrijeme: 17:30
Dvorana: SD Gospino polje, Dubrovnik
Gledatelja: 100

SLOVAČKA – ARMENIJA 7:1 (4:1)

STRIJELCI: 1:0 Drahovsky (1′), 2:0 Drahovsky (2′), 3:0 Rick (3′), 4:0 Rafaj (6′), 4:1 Grigoryan (17′), 5:1 Rick (21′), 6:1 Drahovsky (36′), 7:1 Rick (38′)




Appendix 2

Vrsta utakmice: Kvalifikacije za EURO
Kolo: 1.kolo, Glavna runda
Datum: 18.03.2015.
Vrijeme: 20:00
Dvorana: SD Gospino polje, Dubrovnik
Gledatelja: 700

HRVATSKA – TURSKA 10:0 (6:0)

Prvi sudac: Ivan Shabanov (RUS)
Drugi sudac: Gerd Bylois ((BEL)
Treći sudac: Cedric Pelissier (FRA)
Kontrolor suđenja: Victor van Helvoirt
Delegat: Victor Beceiro

HRVATSKA: Ivo Jukić, Jakov Grcić, Kristijan Grbeša, Duje Bajrušović, Saša Babić, Franco Jelovčić, Dario Marinović, Andrej Pandurević, Tihomir Novak, Josip Suton, Marin Stojkić, Vedran Matošević, Maro Đuraš, Franko Bilić, trener: Mato Stanković

TURSKA: Mustafa İlyasoğlu, Kenan Köseoğlu, Sami Büyüktopaç, Yasin Erdal, Servet Yazgan, Onur Mengi, Cem Keskin, Kahan Özcan, Muhammet Altunay, Sercan Gök, Berkay Bulut, Aykut Koç, Mehmet Aşlamacı, trener: Ömer Kaner

STRIJELCI: 1:0 ag-Büyüktopaç (5′), 2:0 Grbeša (11′), 3:0 Grcić (13′), 4:0 Jelovčić (18′), 5:0 Marinović (19′), 6:0 Marinović (20′), 7:0 Novak (25′), 8:0 Đuraš (31′), 9:0 Suton (33′), 10:0 Babić (40′)

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Photos

Shah Rukh Khan
The King of Bollywood

Dubrovnik
City Walls

Game of Thrones
Blackwater Bay

"Fan" Movie
Rukh Shah Khan Body Double

"Fan" Movie
The motorbike from the harbour chase scene

Dubrovnik
Lokrum Island in the distance

Comments

[alex waring]

Dubrovnik
Ah, you visited Dubrovnik while you still had to travel through Bosnia to get there. I would have loved that, but they'd just finished building the bridge that avoids that now. I love it when you find an old hangover from the communist days, kind of like a bit of nostalgia! I also miss the days when a gaggle of grannies would meet you off a bus in East European parts and offer you a room in their house - a very authentic and bygone era of travelling.