‘We had never heard of tsunamis’

The film unit had been camping at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands since November 22. Directed by Kumar Jai, this raunchy murder mystery is being made on a budget of Rs 1.5 crore. The film stars the lead pair of K.C. Bokadia’s forthcoming Bold, Dev Gill and Tanvi Verma. Betaab had shot in and around locations like Rose Island, Shink Island, Port Blair Water Park and Car Nicobar. Some members of the crew were staying at Hotel Ripples, Port Blair, which was washed away by the tsunamis.

It was a ‘‘nightmare’’, remarked Jaiswal. As the waves leapt into the rooms, the hotel authorities instructed everyone to move to the terrace on the second floor.

‘‘Most people still thought it was an earthquake and started moving down. But the staff knew better and advised us to climb higher,’’ he added. They were stuck on the terrace for three hours, until the tourism board sent a rescue bus.

They were then taken to a government school, but the journey was equally horrific. ‘‘Four buildings collapsed in front of my eyes. Huge ships were thrown 150 feet away, on the sand,’’ recalled Jaiswal.

The crew camped at the school for three days. ‘‘There was no electricity and the tremors just wouldn’t stop. We were longing for a helicopter to take us back to Mumbai,’’ he said.

Though most of the unit returned safe, three people are still missing.

‘‘The government is giving us full support. We hope they are safe. In fact, on Thursday morning we received a call that Pawan, one of our production boys, had been found. But we want to speak to him before we can confirm this,’’ said Mishra.