Delhi The Booming City

I’m the Bolly Hunter, my name is Jay Menon and together we will be hunting down locations of Bollywood movies shot in exotic and historic locations youve seen in big Bollywood blockbusters beginning with Delhi.

Delhi is a booming city. Big buildings, plenty of noise and people, its just insane assault on all your senses but beneath the craziness, beneath the hectic pace, is a city steeped in history and culture, divine cuisine and a top location for Bollywood films.

The successful romantic pairing of Aamir Khan and Kajol is the reason we are here at the Qutb Minar Complex. The blockbuster that was Fanaa, one of the most expensive movies made at its time, filmed one of its songs right here.

In Chand Sifarish, we saw Kajol who plays a blind woman walk through the complex feeling the grooves of the pillars with her hands while a man in love, Aamir follows her around as she takes in the beauty with her touch

Surrounding the Qutb Minar are several historically important monuments that make up the Qutb complex. This includes the Iron Pillar of delhi, the Quawattul Islam mosque, alai darwaza, alai minnar, aluddins minar and tomb.The beauty of the Qutb Minar and the surrounding complex is hard to ignore. Named as a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is the second tallest minaret in India at 73 meters tall. Made of red sandstone and marble, the Qutb Minar is a tall tapering tower with the diameter measuring 14.32 metres at the base and 2.75m at the peak. Inside the minar is a circular staircase that takes you from the base to the top. It is covered with intricate carvings of quranic verses.There are 379 steps leading to the top of the Minar. It would have been nice to get to the top and enjoy the view, which I imagine would be spectacular. It is unfortunately closed to public due to a stampede that saw 45 visitors losing their lives in 1981.

I spent the whole day taking in the beauty of all the carvings which was everywhere. After a while I started feeling them with my hands like Kajol in Fanaa. A lot of the carvings were religious in nature.

The construction of this monument was predominantly to make prayer calls.The qutb complex is also home to some very friendly squirrels who were bold!

Qutb Minar is one of the prime attractions among all historical monuments in india. It was named after Qutb Uddin Abak, but some other contend that it was named after a saint from Baghdad.The Qutb Complex sees thousands of visitors both foreign and local.The customary selfie is must and after that an auto? I got into an auto to get to my next location.

Tughlaqabad Fort is a beautiful fort ruin in Delhi stretching over 6 kilometres built by Ghiyas ud-din-Tughlaq, the founder of the Tughlaq Dynasty in the 14th century.The fort is magnificent with its 15-meter high stonewalls enhanced further with parapets and punctuated with circular bulwarks.The fort was a vision of the king even before he became a king. Soon as he ascended the throne he got straight to work making an impregnable fabled city. However destiny did not turn out that way. The fort lays in ruins after seeing many revolutions take place.To a tourist though, you can imagine the grand brilliance of it in its heyday. Generally with the happy spirited dancing in Bollywood movies, I wouldn’t think that a ruined fort would be an ideal location for it and yet it totally worked for the movie Lakshya. It was just here that fresh-faced Hrithik Roshan was seen chasing a very annoyed Preity Zinta.

King Ghias ud Din was so passionate about building this fort that he threw caution to the wind by instructing all workers in Delhi to work on the fort. This didn’t sit well with a Sufi saint who retaliated by cursing the King and the fort.

Saint Nizamuddin Auliya had also put a curse on the Kings life and sadly King Ghias ud Din was crushed to death under his royal tent. Delhi has many impressive, more famous historical sites such as the most visited Red Fort built by the Emperor Shah Jehan, Humayun’s tomb, and Qutb Minar to name a few and yet Tughlaqabad Fort was picked for the movie Lakshya.Today, while most of the fort is consumed by dense vegetation, on the hinges of the fort modernity is creepin in there is an ever increasing number of housing developments popping up every single year.To make way for present times the fort has had to somewhat give up its space.

If I hadn’t seen the movie and especially the song sequence that was filmed here, I don’t think I would have come across this fort, as it’s not a popular one for tourist. Perhaps it’s more of a pick amongst the locals. It most certainly has its charms and I do see modernity creeping up surrounding it which makes me wonder just how long will it be standing here in its original form and size before finally giving in and making allowances for the growing population of India.The fort is divided into 3 parts namely the wider city area of Tughlaqabad, the palace area where the royal residences were, and the citadel.Today, this grand fort city is deserted and mostly visited by the nearby townsfolk who spend their evening here catching up with friends.

I enjoyed my peaceful exploration of the fort.

One of the more important parts of the fort is the mausoleum. It is the final resting place of King Ghias Ud Din and his family. It is connected by a 600 ft causeway. The actual mausoleum is made up of of a single dome square tomb with sloping walls crowned by parapets. The is a lot of mystery surrounding the death of King Ghias Ud Din.

It is rumoured that his son and heir to the throne Muhamad bin Tughlaq had ordered the attempt on his father’s life. Whatever happened, the family now resides here in the mausoleum, together.There are three graves inside the mausoleum.The central one belonging to the king and the other two of his wife and son.The mausoleum is beautiful with its smooth red sandstone inlayed with inscribed marble panels. It stands out quite a bit from the granite fort that surrounds it. I feel quite accomplished managing to see two impressive historical sites that have appeared in two top Bollywood films and wonder whats in store tomorrow.

This is the magnificient yet another contribution of Emperor Shah Jahan but this is not why we are here at a busy intersection in Old Delhi. Khabi Kushi Khabi Gham will set the tone now as we head to one of the oldest and busiest markets in all of India. It is an insane buzz of action here in the market, a combination of tourist and locals mingling giddily in hopes of getting what they want.This very building can be recognised from that song sequence recreated in a studio.

In the movie, Chandni Chowk was painted as a beautiful semi-affluent place with happy folks prancing about but the reality is quite far from that. I do see plenty of child beggars as well as homeless people roaming here and like any other bustling metropolis’s around the world the ugly sides become hard to ignore as the city grows.

Its time now to hunt down some of the great food that is being offered here. It is said that the recipes of most of the fare here have been passed down for generations. So I could technically be having food that was served in the period of the Kings!

Chandni Chowk is home to several famous restaurants a lot of which have been in business for decades. But today I’ve set my heart on trying Delhi street food, and here..

I’m spoilt for choice.

There are many things you can buy in Chandni Chowk or you can just window shop.

I spent hours browsing..

I'm now in Kinari, Bazaar, the embroidery zone in Chandni Chowk.

The heart of Delhi’s street food lies in the chaat. Chaat is a mixture of potato, crispy fried bread, a savory yogurt desert, garam and spices. There are many versions of it and I’m about to explore a few of the chaat shops here.I found myself at this quaint little shop in the lanes. There were many people lining up so I figured it must be good.

The simplicity of the snack is surpring. Most time the locals who eat there will have different versions of it meaning they will have 4-5 each.The chaat maker is a second generation business owner. I wasnt even offered an option.

It was good! A burst of flavours like you can imagine!

Its why these people come here everytime they're in Chandni Chowk.

A short walk away from the marketplace stands The Jama Masjid. Another masterpiece by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan, it is constructed with red sandstone and white marble. The mosque has three great gates, four towers and two 40 m high minarets. Jama Masjid is India’s largest mosque. The courtyard here can accommodate up to 25,000 people and I can imagine that during special occasions, it will be full to the brim with worshippers.

All I have to say about my time here in Delhi, is just how much it has been such an all round experience.