The legendary filmmaker Shyam BenegalHe passed away on Monday at the age of 90, leaving behind an incomparable body of work. However, among his many achievements, one of the most famous is not a feature film but a television series that chronicles the history of India. 53-episode historical drama A Discovery of India Based on the book The Discovery of India (1946) by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. Benegal deeply admired the book, which he had read many times since childhood, did you know that the idea for the show originated from a request made by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Nehru’s grandson? Yes, you heard that right. Interestingly, Rajiv Gandhi’s request was for Benegal to create a work that would serve as India’s third epic.
In conversation with the state-owned broadcaster television – Who started the series — which aired several years ago, Benegal explains how he came up with the idea and why he chose The Discovery of India as its base. “When this topic was being discussed, there was an idea of ​​making three big epic serials. Rajiv Gandhi saab I thought it would probably be a great idea to make a third thing that actually deals with the history of India – like our two basic epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. I immediately said that I want to do it and I had only one thought in my mind, the discovery of India. It not only explains the history of India but also the confluence of many cultures of the country and the concept of ‘unity in diversity’,” he said.
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Shyam Benegal also reflected on the themes of Jawaharlal Nehru’s book: “Secondly, he saw history during his incarceration in Ahmednagar Jail (Ahmednagar Fort was used as a prison during the British Raj). But he had this thought in his mind, ‘Anyway, we will be independent. So, what kind of nation are we going to build?’ If you look at Hindustan, there is a lot of diversity and the unity that comes out of it should be the nature of the country. This was the exciting part, I got to see not only the history of India, but also the development of this history finally leading to a point where it all comes together.
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Spanning 53 episodes, Bharat Ek Khoj, created by Benegal, traces 5,000 years of Indian history from its ancient beginnings to independence in 1947. Featuring a stellar cast including Roshan Seth, Om Puri, Tom Alter, Sadashivpur Amarser and more. Shah, Lucky Ali, Seema Kelkar, Meeta Vasishtha, Pallavi Joshi and Anjan Srivastava, the series aired between November 1988 and November 1989.
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