UK’s popular adventure travel show ‘Car and Country’ to be shot in Kerala

PTI, Feb 24, 2023, 10:47 AM IST

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A dynamic young crew from the United Kingdom is all set to scorch the roads of lush green Kerala, thanks to a global OTT show.

The famed ‘Car and Country’ show, that’s a rage in Europe, is coming right here and will be hosted in collabortion with Kerala Tourism, which has seized the opportunity to market the southern state on the digital platform in a big way, a statement said here on Thursday.

Shoot for the latest leg of the ‘Car and Country’ show here, its first outside the European continent, will have Porsche and other supercars racing past the greenery deep down south of India, it said.

The cars zipping past will include Porsche Track Version GT Cars, Porsche Electric Taycan, Porsche SUV Macan and Cayenne. From here, the racers will move on to the Gulf terrain.

Two Keralites – Deepak Narendran and Ashique Thahir – are at the wheel of this adventurous ‘rush,’ along with Freddie Hunt, a professional racer and son of legendary James Hunt, who is the 1976 F1 World Champion. The other team members are Charlotte Fantelli, Paul Richards, Sammy Seeley, Paddy King, Adam Bertenshaw, Ken Clay, Malcolm Targett, Amy Holiday, Aimee Watts, Preetham Madhavan and Marion Ferg.

The team, so far, had some exciting trips through the picturesque bylanes of England, France, and Scotland, which were beamed through Amazon Prime UK OTT platform for nearly two months and have been lapped up by viewers.

The quintessential varieties of Kerala like Kalarippayattu, Kathakali, houseboats, snake boat races, its local delicacies, majestic hills, backwaters, paddy fields and tea plantations will be captured for the new edition of the show. Kerala Tourism Minister Muhammed Riyas’ keen interest has resulted in the show turning its gaze on God’s Own Country to expose it in a brilliant way to the world outside, the statement explained.

Ashique from Kozhikode, who is passionate about supercars, just can’t hide his excitement by being part of this elite league of the ‘Car and Country’ rush.

“We let out a feel of the charming European landscape, rural communities, cultures and cuisine from the window of our supercars. Now we are happy to turn the world’s attention toward this green tinged-state’s natural brilliance,” said Charlotte Fantelli. Branded Studios and Searchlight Productions, London, are capturing the informative, adventurous and entertaining show that’s emerging from the stunning journey.

Deepak Narendran from Kochi, who has settled in the UK now, launched the show in 2014 and Ashique teamed up with him in the later episodes. It slipped into a two-year break due to the pandemic before re-emerging last year.

“The shoot of the last episode was challenging. We had to sleep over in tents in snowy mountains in extreme weather. We had to do wild river rafting in adverse climate conditions and do off-roading with the car,” said Ashique.

In its first edition, ‘Car and Country’ was aired on Fox International and the sponsors of the show were Emirates, Star TV, National Geographic and Star Health.

Realizing the potential of the show on the online platform, the duo moved it to Amazon Prime UK in the later episodes, the statement added.