By Vishal Gulati

Shimla, Mar 18 (IANS): A reel-life chase involving actors on the busy Mall here left the police in a cold sweat as unsuspecting on-lookers pressed the panic button, mistaking an outdoor sequence of popular teleserial "CID" to be a real crime.

Police sprung into action as soon as a resident informed the control room Wednesday evening that some thieves were being chased by people on the Mall. As they reached the spot, tourists and residents guided them towards the spot where the "action" took place.

It took the TV show's crew some effort to convince police and onlookers about the reality.

"The residents mistook the reel thieves for real ones. There was chaos for almost half-an-hour," B.P. Singh, creator of the serial that has been on air for 13 years, told IANS.

"But it was (quite an) experience for all of us when the reel sequence turned into a real one. This, of course, is a memorable one," he said.

For the last one week, the entire crew of "CID", including actor Shivaji Satnam, popularly known as ACP Praduman, has been shooting in the hill station for the teleserial's 612th episode.

"Before coming here (in Shimla) for the last sequence of an episode, we were in Manali and its nearby areas for a sequence in which we chased criminals on snow scooters to solve a murder mystery," said Singh, who also created horror TV show "Aahat".

Singh, who made his debut with "Ek Shunya Shunya", a Marathi thriller for Doordarshan in the late 1980s, said: "The 'CID' serial is based on real cases. For each episode, our unit, comprising seven directors, conducts research for selecting an investigation story. Every episode has a new subject. This is the mantra for the show's success."

"We do not show violence and make viewers comprehend the mystery and arrive at a conclusion before the show's climax, like a brain-teaser," the director said.

The teleserial has bagged 36 awards so far and it has entered the Guinness World Records for the longest single shot of 111 minutes in 2005.