Luke Nguyen's India: 6 Hours of Prime Time TV. 5 Week Shoot. Zero Margin for Error.

  • Project: Luke Nguyen's India
  • Format: Culinary Travel Series (6 x 60 min)
  • Client: Creative Media / SBS Australia / Distributed Globally on NatGeo, HBO, Disney+, Amazon, & Apple TV
  • Credit: Line Producer (India)
  • Locations: Bangalore, Coimbatore, Kerala, Thekkady, Madurai, Chettinad, Pondicherry, Chennai.

Luke Ngyuen travel show filming on Kerala Backwaters and KochiThe Challenge: A Logistics Marathon in the Heat

When Creative Media approached us to line produce Luke Nguyen's deep dive into Southern India, the brief was deceptively simple: Circumnavigate the south, capture the vibrant chaos of the Dravidian heartland, and cook with local legends.

The reality, however, was a logistical beast. The schedule demanded shooting six one-hour episodes in just five weeks. For the uninitiated, moving a full unit by road across three Indian states (Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu), through 12 different cities, while filming multiple cooking sequences daily, is not a "holiday." It is a military operation.

We weren't just dealing with the usual India production challenges—crowd control in dense markets, notoriously bureaucratic permit systems for heritage temples, and the sweltering heat. We were dealing with the sheer velocity of the shoot. If one tire blew, or one permit paper was missing, the entire schedule would collapse like a house of cards.

The Solution: Ruthless Efficiency & Local Leverage

You don't pull off a shoot like this by hoping for the best. You do it by knowing exactly where the worst will happen and having a Plan B ready.

  • Strategic Scheduling: We threw out the "Indian Standard Time" playbook. Our team utilized our extensive network in South India to pre-clear routes and secure "sensitive area" permits weeks in advance, ensuring Luke could walk into a location and start cooking immediately.
  • Complex Permissions: The script called for shoots in high-security zones, including the bustling markets of Bangalore and the heritage zones of Fort Kochi. We navigated the labyrinth of municipal approvals and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) clearances to ensure the crew was never shut down by a zealous local official.
  • Culinary Sourcing: This wasn't just about cameras; it was about kitchens. We located 100-year-old heritage kitchens and sourced obscure local ingredients in remote villages, ensuring the "authenticity" Luke required was ready and waiting when the cameras rolled.
  • The "Mobile Unit": We streamlined the logistics into a high-speed mobile unit, managing accommodation, catering, and equipment transport across thousands of kilometers of variable road conditions without a single day lost to travel fatigue.

The Outcome

The series premiered on SBS to critical acclaim and was distributed globally on NatGeo, HBO, Disney+, Amazon, & Apple TV. We proved that with the right Line Producer, you can shoot a high-end, multicam travelogue in India without the production drama usually associated with the territory.

We delivered the color and the chaos on screen, by completely eliminating it from the production office.

What The Client Said

"Fantastic job getting all the episodes done. An arduous task given timelines, logistics and just a lot of hard work. The series looked great to air and you all should be very proud of the results."

— Michael Donnelly, Series Producer/Director | SBS Australia

Official SBS Trailer...

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