Bharat Ek Khoj

Bharat Ek Khoj is a 53-episode Indian historical drama based on the book The Discovery of India (1946) by Jawaharlal Nehru[3] that covers a 5,000-year history of India from its beginnings to independence from the British in 1947. The drama was directed, written and produced by Shyam Benegal with cinematographer V. K. Murthy in 1988 for state-owned Doordarshan. Shama Zaidi co-wrote the script.[4] Its cast included Om Puri, Roshan Seth, Tom Alter and Sadashiv Amrapurkar. Jawaharlal Nehru was portrayed by Roshan Seth, the same role he portrayed in the Oscar-winning film Gandhi.[5]

Bharat Ek Khoj
Bharat Ek Khoj DVD cover
GenreHistorical fiction
Created byShyam Benegal
Based onThe Discovery of India
by Jawaharlal Nehru
Written byShyam Benegal
Shama Zaidi
Sunil Shanbag
Vasant Dev (dialogues)
StarringRoshan Seth
Om Puri
Tom Alter
Sadashiv Amrapurkar
Naseeruddin Shah
Lucky Ali
Seema Kelkar
Mita Vashisht
Pallavi Joshi
Anjan Srivastav
Sohaila Kapur
Ila Arun
Irrfan Khan
Ravi Jhankal
Piyush Mishra
Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Subrat Bose, Pankaj Berry
Narrated byOm Puri[1]
Opening themeVanraj Bhatia
Country of originIndia
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes53
Production
Executive producer(s)Raj Pius
CinematographyV. K. Murthy
Editor(s)
[2]
Production company(s)Doordarshan
Sahyadri Films
Release
Original networkDD National
Original release13 November 1988 (1988-11-13)[1]

Production designer Nitish Roy with assistants Samir Chanda and Nitin Desai built 144 sets.[6]

Cast and episode list
EpisodeTitleCastRoleNotes
1 Bharat Mata Ki Jai[7] Roshan Seth Jawaharlal Nehru[1]
2 The Beginnings (Indus Valley Civilization) Harish Patel, Lalit Mohan Tiwari, Pallavi Joshi Draha, Shulgi, Atri
3 The Arrival of the Vedic People (the Rigveda) Anang Desai, K K Raina, Ravi Jhankal Sardar, Suteja, Bajbandha
4 Caste Formation Anang Desai, Salim Ghouse, K K Raina, Lalit Mohan Tiwari, Inayatullah Kantroo, Anuradha Tarafdar, Ila Arun Chandraprabha, Rama, Narada, Arjuna, Dhanpal,Dhanvati, Sheelvati Story of Shambuka from Ramayana and Ekalavya from Mahabharata were also part of this episode.
5 Mahabharata Part 1 Teejan Bai, Salim Ghouse, Om Puri, Sujata Mehta Herself, Krishna, Duryodhana, Draupadi
6 Mahabharata Part 2 Om Puri, Pankaj Berry, Ila Arun, Salim Ghouse Duryodhan, Aswatthama, Gandhari, Krishna
7 Ramayana Part 1[1] Pallavi Joshi, Salim Ghouse, Pankaj Berry, Ravi Jhankal Sita, Rama, Bharata, Lakshmana
8 Ramayana Part 2 Om Puri, Pallavi Joshi, Salim Ghouse[1] Ravana, Sita, Rama
9 Republics and Kingdoms Virendra Saxena, K K Raina Mahaanaman, Virudhaka
10 Negation and Acceptance of Life Dhruv Ghanekar, Aanjjan Srivastav, Om Puri Nachiketa, Yamaraja, Angulimaal
11 Chanakya and Chandragupta Part 1 Satyadev Dubey, Ravi Jhankal, Mita Vashisht Chanakya, Chanragupta, Suhasini
12 Chanakya and Chandragupta Part 2 Satyadev Dubey, Ravi Jhankal, Aanjjan Srivastav Chanakya, Chanragupta, Dhana Nanda
13 Ashoka Part 1 Om Puri, K.K Raina, Ila Arun Ashoka, Radhagupta, Asandhimitra
14 Ashoka Part 2 Om Puri, K.K Raina, Ila Arun, Lucky Ali (credites as Maqsoom Ali) Ashoka, Radhagupta, Asandhimitra, Prince Tissa
15 The Sangam Period: Silapaddirakam Part 1 Pallavi Joshi, Rakesh Dhar Kannaki, Kovalan
16 The Sangam Period: Silapaddirakam Part 2 Pallavi Joshi, Rakesh Dhar, Sulabha Deshpande, Virendra Saxena Kannaki, Kovalan, Kavundi, Pandit
17 The Classical Age Anjan Srivastav, Harish Patel, Aparjita Krishna Sansthanaka, Nai, Vasantsena
18 Kalidas and Shakuntala Part 1 Ravi Jhankal, Pallavi Joshi, Virendra Saxena Kalidas, Mallika, Matul Excerpts from plays Ashadh Ka Ek Din by Mohan Rakesh and Shakuntala (play) by Kalidasa were used in this episode.
19 Kālidāsa and Shakuntala Part 2 Ravi Jhankal, Pallavi Joshi, Virendra Saxena Kalidas, Mallika, Matul
20 Harshavardhana Pankaj Berry, K Makhija, Aparajita Harshavardhana, Prabhakar Vardhana, Queen
21 Bhakti Vijay Kashyap, Rajesh Vivek, Mita Vashisht, Harish Patel Mahendravarman I, Kapalin, Devasoma, Buddhist Monk
22 The Chola Empire Part 1 Om Puri, Devendre Malhotra, Sunila Pradhan, Shantanu Chaparia Raja Raja Chola, Ishanashiva, Mahadevi, Tirumala
23 The Chola Empire Part 2 Om Puri, Devendre Malhotra, Sunila Pradhan, Shantanu Chaparia Raja Raja Chola, Ishanashiva, Mahadevi, Tirumala
24 The Delhi Sultanate Part 1:The Arrival of Turk-Afghans and Prithviraj Raso K.K. Raina,Vijay Kashyap, Ravi Jhankal, Ahmed Khan Muhammad Ghori, Chand Bardai, Prithviraj Chauhan, Mahmud Ghazni
25 The Delhi Sultanate Part 2: Prithviraj Raso and Alauddin Khilji K.K. Raina,Vijay Kashyap, Ravi Jhankal, Achyut Potdar, Om Puri, Rajendra Gupta, Seema Kelkar Muhammad Ghori, Chand Bardai, Makwana, Alauddin Khilji, Ratan Singh, Padmavati
26 The Delhi Sultanate Part 3: Padmavat and Tughlaq dynasty[8] Om Puri, Rajendra Gupta, Seema Kelkar, Alauddin Khalji,Ratan Singh, Padmavati
27 Synthesis Pankaj Berry Lorik
28 The Vijayanagar Empire Om Puri, Salim Ghouse, Anjan Srivastava, Fr. Tasso Krishna Deva Raya, Aliya Rama Raya, Appaji, Domingo Paes
29 Feudalism[9] Salim Ghouse, Ila Arun, Pallivi Joshi, Siraj Khan, Ajay Kumar Aliya Rama Raya, Heggaditi, Mallige, Saguna, Achyuta Deva Raya
30 The Fall of the Vijayanagar Empire Salim Ghouse, Anang Desai, Pankaj Berry, Ahmed Khan, Arjun Raina Aliya Rama Raya, Effendi Aslam Bain, Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah Wali, Hussain Nizam Shah I, Ali Adil Shah I
31 Rana Sanga, Ibrahim Lodi and Babur Ravi Jhankal, Anang Desai, Lalit Tiwari Rana Sanga, Ibrahim Lodi, Babur
32 Akbar Part 1 (Din-e Ilahi) Kulbhushan Kharbanda Akbar
33 Akbar Part 2 Kulbhushan Kharbanda Akbar
34 Golden Hind Ajit Vachhani
35 Aurangzeb Part 1 Om Puri Aurangzeb
36 Aurangzeb Part 2 Om Puri Aurangzeb
37 Shivaji Part 1 Naseeruddin Shah[10] Shivaji
38 Shivaji Part 2 Naseeruddin Shah Shivaji
39 Company Bahadur (East India Company) Amrish Puri, Rajendra, Jalal Agha, Tom Alter, Vishal Singh
40 Tipu Sultan Salim Ghouse Tipu Sultan
41 The Bengal Renaissance and Raja Ram Mohan Roy Anang Desai Raja Ram Mohan Roy
42 1857 Part 1 Tom Alter, Om Puri, Ravi Jhankal
43 1857 Part 2 Tom Alter British Officer
44 Indigo Revolt Virendra Saxena Madhav
45 Mahatma Phule Sadashiv Amrapurkar Mahatma Phule
46 Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
47 Vivekananda Alok Nath Swami Vivekananda
48 Extremists and Moderates Mohan Gokhale Gopal Krishna Gokhale
49 And Gandhi Came Part 1
50 And Gandhi Came Part 2
51 Separatism
52 Do or Die
53 Epilogue

Broadcast

The 53 episodes series was launched in November 1988 which coincide with the birth centenary of Nehru.[1] The series was re-telecast on DD Bharati from 27 May 2013 on the occasion of 49th death anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru.[11]

See also

References
  1. September 30, MADHU JAIN; September 30, 1988 ISSUE DATE:; November 20, 1988UPDATED:; Ist, 2013 17:50. "Bharat Ek Khoj: The making of most extravagant serial ever". India Today.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. "Shyam Benegal on watching Padmaavat: I want to see what all the fuss is about". Mumbai Mirror.
  3. "What makes Shyam special..." The Hindu. 17 January 2003. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  4. "Music in her lines Makeup artist Vivek Nayak". The Hindu. 1 October 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  5. "Roshan Seth waits for right role". The Hindu. 19 November 2001. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  6. "Samir Chanda's death was devastating: Shyam Benegal". The Times of India. 20 August 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  7. Staff, Scroll. "In this first episode of 'Bharat Ek Khoj', Nehru's character quizzes those chanting 'Bharat Mata ki jai' on what the phrase means". Scroll.in.
  8. "Om Puri had played Alauddin Khilji much before Ranveer Singh". in.com.
  9. "How India Became a Republic - Indian Express". archive.indianexpress.com.
  10. Chari, Mridula. "The DD Files: When Shyam Benegal brought India's entire history to TV screens in 'Bharat Ek Khoj'". Scroll.in.
  11. "DD to commence repeat telecast of 'Bharat Ek Khoj' to mark Nehru's death anniversary". Indian Television Dot Com. 25 May 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.