I had noticed in the past that our adventures often took totally-unexpected turns. When this happened, Feluda seldom lost his equanimity. In fact, I had always marvelled at his ability to keep calm while dealing with unforeseen complications. This time, however, what happened made him very cross. Before going to bed at night, we had decided to leave early in the morning to go back to the spot where we had heard that funny noise. It required investigation, Feluda said. So we rose at five o’clock and left the bungalow half an hour later after having a cup of tea. Feluda was up before us to replace his make-up. I remembered to maintain a right parting in my hair. Lalmohan Babu expressed the desire to make some change in his appearance as well, but Feluda said ‘No!’ so firmly that he had to desist. The caves were going to open for visitors as soon as the sun rose. We wanted to be the first, so we got there at 6 a.m. To our complete astonishment, we found the place crawling with people. A large number of cars and vans were parked outside. It was the sight of a reflector that told me what was going on. This was a film unit. They had arrived from Bombay to shoot a Hindi film, we learnt. The actors hadn’t yet arrived, but the rest of the crew were getting things ready. ‘Oh no!’ Feluda cried in dismay. ‘Why couldn’t they find some other place?’ A young man was bustling about, clutching a film magazine. Lalmohan Babu called him aside. ‘What is the name of this film, do you know?’ he asked. ‘Oh yes. Krorepati.’ ‘Who’s acting in it?’ ‘Three of the top stars. Today’s shots will include Rupa, Arjun Mehrotra and Balwant Chopra. The heroine, hero and the villain.’ The mention of Arjun Mehrotra made Lalmohan Babu grow round-eyed. ‘Will there be songs?’ he asked. ‘No, no. We’ve come to shoot fights. Stuntmen, doubles and the fight director are all here. The hero will chase the villain from a cave into the main temple.’ ‘And the heroine?’ ‘She’ll stay in the cave. The villain has imprisoned her in there, you see. But now the hero’s here, so the villain has to run for his life. The climax takes place on the spire.’ ‘The spire?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Who’s the director?’ ‘Mohan Sharma. But these shots today will be taken by the fight director, Appa Rao.’ ‘How long do you think the whole thing will take?’ ‘Well . . . that’s difficult to say. We hope to start by ten o’clock. Then we should finish by one.’

That meant they would occupy the whole complex virtually the whole day. ‘I don’t believe this!’ Feluda said through clenched teeth. ‘How did they get permission to take the whole place over?’ Since we couldn’t get into the temple, we decided to climb over it, just as we had done the previous night. But even the hills around the temple had men from the film unit setting up equipment. We learnt here that although the film crew were not letting ordinary visitors into the temple, they could not go in themselves, as the official letter giving them the necessary permission to shoot had not yet arrived. It was being brought in a different car. The chowkidar on duty had flatly refused to unlock the main door unless the letter was produced. Feluda clicked his tongue in annoyance and said, ‘Let’s not waste any more time. Let’s see if we can get into cave number fifteen. At least we can look at those beautiful statues, away from all this noise.’ We climbed down from the other side and were walking towards the cave when we saw a huge yellow American car making its way to the temple. The three major stars and the fight director had arrived. Feluda had already told us the fifteenth cave was the Das Avatar cave. We ran into two modern avatars on our way. They were Lewison and Raxit. We had spotted them from a distance, standing near the entrance and speaking rather animatedly. As we got closer, we heard the American say angrily, ‘I see no point in my staying here any longer.’ Then he strode off in a huff. Mr Raxit walked up to us, shrugged and smiled somewhat bitterly. ‘He was complaining about the arrangements here. I mean, in the guest house. He said to me, “How can you expect me to spend my dollars here, when you don’t even know how to fry an egg?” Just because he’s rich, he thinks he owns the whole world.’ ‘That’s strange!’ Feluda remarked. ‘Isn’t he supposed to be a connoisseur of art? How can he talk of fried eggs, standing in a place like this, surrounded by the best specimens of Indian art?’ ‘How,’ Lalmohan Babu wanted to know, ‘do they fry eggs in America, anyway?’ Mr Raxit opened his mouth to speak, but had to shut it immediately. A loud scream from the temple made us all start violently. Lalmohan Babu was the first to recover. ‘That must be the villain!’ he exclaimed. ‘They’ve started shooting. The villain’s shouting and making his escape.’ But no. A babble had broken out. There were many other voices, also screaming and yelling. There was something wrong, obviously. Feluda had already begun walking in that direction. We followed him quickly. As we returned to the temple’s entrance, we saw a man in a purple bush shirt being carried out. He appeared to be unconscious. He was taken to the yellow car. Then came the three stars. Rupa was walking slowly, leaning heavily on Arjun Mehrotra. Balwant was holding her hand, and murmuring into her ear, as if she were a frightened child, in need of comforting. A second later, we saw the same young man we had spoken to earlier. ‘What happened? What’s wrong?’ Lalmohan Babu asked him. ‘There’s a . . . there’s a dead body