For the third time in its history, Pékin Express launched an All Stars edition on M6 on September 14, called Beijing Express, The Epic of the Maharajas. Elle brings together seven pairs of emblematic candidates and the competition between them takes place only in India. A country already known to the show’s teams. “Rajasthan, we had never done it. This is truly unprecedented“, had however teased the producer Thierry Guillaume during the press conference for the M6 game, at which Purepeople had attended.
In fact, the first time Pékin Express was filmed in India, it was in 2014 for season 10 in other regions and at the time, nothing went as planned. For good reason, the program teams were arrested, causing the interruption of filming. The reason: suspicions of espionage.
The police had taken into custody a total of around fifty people (candidates and technicians combined) following their use of satellite telephones which were lent to them in the event of an emergency given that they were all in the sensible zone of Chalsabetween Nepal, China, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Three technicians were even forced to stay in India for several weeks following these suspicions.
A less “complicated” region of India
You would have thought that the idea of returning there one day would have cooled everyone down, and yet, it was done without hesitation. “I knew that in these regions it would be less complicated“, confided host Stéphane Rotenberg to Tele-Leisure. And added: “Often when there are tensions, it’s when we are near problem borders, that’s where the military will be tense. There, on the contrary, we knew that the risk was very low. Now I’ve learned to know where it’s complicated“.
The producer, Thierry Guillaume, also shared his feelings with our colleagues, ensuring that, despite his apprehensions on the first day, he was much more calm. “I found a very different country. Like the rest of the world, India has changed too. We were a little apprehensive, yes, before going back. But from the first day of filming, I understood that it was going to go well“.
