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#Bharat ek khoj on hindustan serial
The TV serial – Bharat Ek Khoj – directed by Shyam Benegal focuses on the same.Īctually the Rigveda (pronunciation: Rugved) contains hymn titled as Purusha sukta (puruṣasūkta, पुरुष सूक्तम्). Nehru reaches to a point where the possible formation of Caste should have taken place (while writing his book – Discover Of India), and he collects his thoughts on the same. There were two voices on the show – Roshan Seth voiced Pt Nehru while Puri was a narrator,” says Benegal.Moving ahead in his journey to discover the real India – Pt. “Puri was the narrator, and was also cast in numerous roles. Popular names like Om Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Naseerudin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Piyush Mishra, Tom Alter, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Alok Nath and Mohan Gokhale, among others, were also part of the show. They introduced 350 actors, largely from theatre, Delhi’s National School of Drama and other acting institutes. While the script was well-researched, casting for the episodes focusing on the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Chanakya, Ashoka, The Chola Empire, the Delhi Sultanate, Akbar, Aurangzeb, Tipu Sultan, the 1857 revolution, Vivekananda and Gandhi, among others, was tough. Read: Karamchand was first of its kind, says Pankaj Kapur Alok Nath played the role of Swami Vivekanand in the show. I worried about what would happen to the show then, and if it would remain incomplete,” he says, laughing. The show, and shooting for it for one and a half year, was an experience of a lifetime for all those involved.”īenegal, an experienced director, wasn’t worried about the scale of the show or the challenges that came with it.
#Bharat ek khoj on hindustan series
No one has remade it, and the series is still referred to at various platforms. Even after 25 years, people still talk about the show. Multiple sets were also put up across India. Two floors were booked at Film City, Goregaon, for the shoot of the show for a year.
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The unit shot at numerous places in the country, from the Taj Mahal and Western Ghats to other historical attractions. Read: Once upon a time, Ramayan attracted more viewers than Game of Thrones Pallavi Joshi and Shabana Azmi were part of the show, which also featured many other popular actors like Om Puri and Naseerudin Shah. After all, we were reliving history through the show,” says Benegal. We took everything extremely seriously, and it was worth it. It was a great adventure, and I am glad we could manage it well.
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We worried about the authenticity of the costumes, jewellery and architecture shown. I was aware that the concept was unlikely to be repeated in the near future, so we wanted to be as accurate as possible while talking about the history of the country. “The one-hour show became hugely successful, and had multiple reruns. Shooting commenced in early 1988, and the show went on air on Nehru’s 99th birth anniversary (November 14, 1988). The 53-episode series, titled Bharat Ek Khoj, was penned by Shama Zaidi and her team, which included 25 writers. My team and I also got 15 historians on board to flesh out the story,” recalls Benegal. It became the basis for what was shown in the series. It was his attempt to understand and discover his country. He agreed, and chose to base it on Pt Jawaharlal Nehru’s book, Discovery Of India. Celebrated film-maker Shyam Benegal was approached for it.
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The success of the shows prompted the government to think of starting a TV series that documented the history of the country. Ramayan and Mahabharat began gaining popularity on the small screen in the mid-1980s.