Mumbai

S1, E5: Determined to fulfill her dream of being in a Bollywood movie, presenter Asha Gill gets the lowdown on Bollywood’s raunchy moves from acclaimed choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant. Studio heir Riyad Wadia gives Asha the dummies guide to all things Bollywood at one of the last remaining hand-painted movie poster workshops in the city, and dazzles her with the bright lights of the city’s club-hopping scene. Asha meets street photographer David de Souza chronicling the itinerants that work on Mumbai’s streets and grasps the chance to understand who these people are before they disappear by helping in a studio shoot of a traditional flagellant. Man about town Thomas Cherian shows Asha a back room collection of ancient Indian erotica in Chor Bazaar and teaches her how to best savour the flavour of Mumbai food, street-style. Asha is invited to a hijira house by the flamboyant cross-dressing eunuch Lakshmi to get a privileged insight into India’s ‘third sex’, and gets access to a Hindu wedding when she joins a flock of hijiras dancing to bless the happy couple’s union. Asha gets an inkling of Mumbai’s place in the global economy when she joins Afshan at an international call centre, where the workers are undergoing surreal voice training to mimic American accents. And finally Asha gets her big break, joining Vaibhavi on set at Film City to dance in a dramatic Bollywood number with the biggest star in Indian cinema history – Amitabh Bachchan.