Mumbai 26/7: Hiten Tejwani, Vatsal Sheth and Deven Bhojani share their experiences

Hiten Tejwani, Vatsal Sheth and Deven Bhojani

The 2005 Maharashtra floods impacted many parts of the state including Mumbai, in which approximately 1,094 people died. The city came to a standstill with many having to walk long distances wading through the water to reach home, others had to take shelter at their workplace with no way to commute. Actors Hiten Tejwani, Vatsal Sheth and Deven Bhojani shared their experiences with mid-day.com.

Hiten Tejwani- We were shooting for 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' and we only realised it was raining heavily after water started entering the set. The vehicles of people who had parked near the set were floating by then, luckily we had parked away. After a point Gauri (wife) and I had to let go of ours cars and walked home, in knee deep water. We reached home after wading through water in two hours.

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Vatsal Sheth- On July 26th 2005, our entire building was submerged in the Mumbai rains and the entire experience was chaotic, it is a memory that will always remain with me. Our cars were submerged. My dad and brother who had stepped out for work could not make it back home, they had to stay somewherelse. My mom and I were at home and it was quite an experience. I'm sure everyone in Mumbai went through something similar.

Deven Bhojani- My belief in finding good in the worst situation reminds me of 26th July 2005, when the heavy rainfall had almost paralysed the city. We were shooting for ‘Sarabhai vs Sarabhai' in Kanjurmarg, a place little away from most of the team members residences. Being the director, artistes requested me to wrap up the shoot as it was raining heavily and there were news about the flooding, traffic jam, landslides etc. I wrapped the shoot immediately and left the studio at 1pm with my two assistants who didn't have a vehicle of their own. We got stuck at Andheri Saki-Naka area at 3pm. Assistants, driver and I had one one paratha each which I'd found from my tiffin box at 9pm. We could not move an inch from there until 3am. All were extremely hungry but everything was shut. Got to know through someone that within 5 minutes of walking distance there was a small restaurant still open. We all ran there only to hear, ‘Abhi abhi band kiya'. Assistants requested the manager to feed us at least something but in vain. I was standing at a distance. The cook who was leaving recognised me and turned out to be my huge fan. He looked like an angel to me when he agreed to cook especially for us. Thank God, eventually we all could eat ‘garam garam daal chawal'. I'll never forget the taste of that food and we finally reached home at 9am.