As a leading luxury experiential travel company that proudly spans three different continents, &Beyond is able to offer an incredible range of life-changing, bucket list adventures to suit any traveller’s wishlist. We are a guide-led business and whether guests are seeking a wildlife, cultural, culinary, family or photographic journey – you name it – we are renowned for having highly skilled specialist guides and naturalists that deliver authentic, personal, insightful and memorable local experiences. They’re a million times better than any guidebook and by the end of the journey, they really do feel like family.
This sought-after knowledge and on-the-ground expertise even extends to the world of filmmaking and documentaries. Our &Beyond Asia team has quickly become the #1 go-to travel expert of choice for several top documentaries filmed in India and Sri Lanka.
The most recent being a National Geographic magazine feature, ‘In The Footsteps of Gandhi’, for which the &Beyond team planned and executed an exciting itinerary that criss-crossed India, documenting the historic travels of Mahatma Gandhi during his struggle for Indian independence. Our team even went as far as to recreate the route of the famous Dandi Salt March, when Gandhi walked from Ahmedabad to Dandi to collect salt in defiance of a colonial tax.
This was not &Beyond Asia’s only cooperation with National Geographic; our team has also worked with the prestigious publication on a number of stories, including the snow leopard, tiger and Kaziranga National Park. They recently wrapped up a two-month photoshoot with Nat Geo and renowned photographer Steve Winter in Sri Lanka, documenting the elusive leopard.
&Beyond Asia Managing Directors Suhail Gupta and Toby Sinclair have handled numerous film projects as well. These include major series such as Land of the Tiger (BBC/PBS) and sequences for Life of Mammals (BBC) and Planet Earth (BBC/Discovery), as well as numerous films on iconic species such as the tiger, leopard, elephant, Indian wolf and Indian wild dog.
It is not always Asia’s wildlife that is in focus and other recent projects include films on the life of the Buddha and Buddhist archaeology for PBS, National Geographic and the BBC. The team also worked on a three-part series on the Ganges River for the BBC and Discovery, as well as the Indian sequences on BBC’s History of the World, among others.
The &Beyond Asia team also assisted with the Wonders of the Monsoon, a BBC documentary series that examines the effects of the monsoon rains on the wildlife and cultures of Asia. This project made good use of &Beyond’s reach throughout the region, calling for the coordination of itineraries in both India and Sri Lanka.
&Beyond’s extensive knowledge of Sri Lanka was also requested for the filming of two other documentaries on the island. Considering its size, Sri Lanka is one of the most biologically diverse places on the earth, a fact that was highlighted in the three-part National Geographic series Wild Sri Lanka. The series, which the &Beyond team worked on for over two years, tracks the island’s wildlife.
More recently, &Beyond was also responsible for travel arrangements and extensive logistical support during the three-year filming of the popular Disney feature film Monkey Kingdom, which follows a family of macaque monkeys living within the ancient ruined city of Polonnaruwa.
The expert handling of such highly specialised itineraries is testament to the local knowledge, infrastructure and proven track record of our &Beyond team in Asia. With fully-staffed regional offices in India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal, we offer a full range of travel services, combined with personalised hands-on assistance on the ground.
Although few travellers are likely to have requirements as complicated as a documentary film or professional photography crew, all of our &Beyond Asia tours are carefully personalised and include authentic experiences, from a starlit dinner on the ramparts of an ancient fort in Jodhpur and an after-hours tour of a museum accompanied by the curator, to a meeting with a member of Bhutan’s royal family or an evening with a wildlife expert in Sri Lanka.
Images courtesy of National Geographic photographer Steve Winter.