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“The Shaw Must Go On!” - Synopsis

Goa to Pokhara, two weeks and 3000km through India and Nepal in a 150cc Auto-Rickshaw!

In September 2009, three complete strangers took to the handlebars of a 150cc auto- rickshaw and joined sixty other teams on a unique, bizarre and totally unforgettable journey from Goa on the shores of the Arabian Sea to Pokhara in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Tiger infested jungles, monsoon floods, river crossings, Delhi belly, and more than one empty petrol tank - would they make it? What would they have to do to get there? How would they get along as they bumped cheek-to-cheek for ten hours a day?

From quaint Goa, climbing through Maharashtra, exploring the forts of Madhya Pradesh, threading through the side-streets of Bhopal, crossing the Ganges to the ghats of Varanassi and on to the serenity of Lumbhini - the birthplace of Buddha - and to the Himalayas beyond.

Whatever the challenge, whatever danger and hardships they face, The Shaw Must Go On!

Note from the Executive Producer.

In August 2009, I read an article about the Rickshaw Run, a 3,000km journey across India in an auto rickshaw (tuk-tuk) and thought what an incredible adventure it sounded and how fantastic it would be to take part. Moreover, what a great story to shoot!

I contacted fellow producers Azhar Habib (Wildtrack Productions) and Jon Moore (The Deck) and less than 5 weeks later the team were in Goa for the start; having cajoled, begged and borrowed both people and equipment to help make the project a reality.

The production was and is, a labor of love by all those involved. It’s been self-financed by Ahzar Habib and myself, with the Director, Jon Moore and the cast and crew giving up their valuable time for free.

The result is “The Shaw Must Go On!” a lifestyle documentary that will hopefully be released this summer. So far, we’ve had great response from a variety of broadcasters with Nat Geo, Star TV, Showtime and Ten Sports just a few of the networks who’ve expressed an interest in the film.

On top of this we’ve had over 5,000 visitors to the (original) website to date and over 500 people followed the daily blog’s of the cast and crew during filming. Plus we’ve had a heap of press coverage. Not bad for a small independent, self financed production!

The next step for us is to go into post-production. With over 130 hours of footage to be edited, this is no small task and we expect to be in ‘post’ for 4-6 weeks. As a result, we’re currently looking for sponsorship to help us complete the post-production stage.

Not surprisingly, it’s a difficult task to raise sponsorship, especially in the current climate but we’re hoping there’s a like-minded company out there that will support the creative spirit at play and help us complete the film. There’s a great story to tell and we’ve collected some truly unique and stunning footage. And of course there’ll be a glitzy film premier to attend, so please contact us if you’d like to know more about the sponsorship package on offer.

Aside from the journey itself, there’s a great story behind the scenes. If you’d like to know more about the production and how we pulled it off, please take a look at some of the articles in the press section.

In the meantime, hope you enjoyed the trailer…!

Ian Carless – Executive Producer, Talkabout Media.

Note from the Director

For a production like this, there would normally be a lead time of up to six weeks. A team of researchers would be fine-tuning locations, characters and stories, and local fixers would be hard at work, making sure everything was in place, ready for the arrival of the crew at each stop. And before a single frame had been shot, the commissioning broadcaster would be confident in knowing almost exactly what program they would eventually be putting to air.

For us it was different. We’d stumbled upon The Rickshaw Run at the last minute, so we didn’t have that luxury. Two HD camera crews, transport, flights, food and hotels don’t come cheap and we’d arrived in Goa, thirteen strangers with less of an idea of where we were going than what we’d be doing when we got there. But when everything fell into place, day after day, for two weeks, what had initially been our biggest challenge, quickly became the show’s biggest selling point.

It didn’t take us long to realise that what we were making was something totally original. While too many travel programs bombard the viewer with facts, figures, strange characters and quirky stories, we found ourselves focusing more on the actual experience of getting from A to B. After all, arriving in Pokhara was our number one goal. Whatever happened and whomever we met along the way would be a bonus. For us, the real story would be in how our three drivers would handle the journey, how they would react to what they saw and how they would get along while bumping cheek to cheek for two weeks.

Daily interviews provide the narrative, the story unfolding in a completely honest, reflective and immediate way. I think we’ve come up with a totally fresh and original approach to the travel format and I think that could well be a welcome change for many viewers.

By the time we arrived in Nepal, we’d seen every inch of that road from Goa at ground level. But without all those facts and figures, there’s plenty of room left for a much more entertaining story – the story of three people laughing, crying and bonding as they clatter their way into the unknown.

Jon Moore – Director, The Deck