Famous filmmaker Shyam Benegal said goodbye to this world on 23 December. Even though he is no more in this world, his name will always remain immortal for his contribution to the world of cinema. Be it the silver screen or the TV screen, Shyam Benegal showed his artistry everywhere.
Whenever Shyam Benegal's name is mentioned, the name of the popular 80s TV series 'Bharat Ek Khoj' definitely comes to mind. This was his biggest and popular TV program, which was aired on Doordarshan from 1988 to 1989. This show was telecast every Sunday at 11 am. There were a total of 53 episodes.
'Bharat Ek Khoj' was presented on screen in a brilliant and powerful manner by Shyam Benegal, but the story behind the making of this series is even stronger. Let us know what Shyam Benegal did to bring 53 episodes to the audience.
Actually, the process of making this show started when the Government of India got the idea that such a show should come on TV, through which the vast history of India should be shown. But the biggest question was who would make this show? Shyam Benegal's name came up. Shyam Benegal wanted to present the story of 'Mahabharata' on screen at that time, but the responsibility of Mahabharata was already with BR Chopra.
Benegal accepted the offer of the Government of India and started working on presenting the history of India on the small screen based on the book 'Discovery of India' written by the country's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru.
The script of 'Bharat Ek Khoj' was written together by 25 people including Atul Tiwari, Shama Zaidi. Apart from this, there were also 15 historians in Shyam Benegal's team, who used to guide the team of writers. Shyam Benegal wanted to present every phase of Indian history on screen in detail. In such a situation, 40 people who were experts in history were included in a separate pre-production team. Work on the script started in the year 1986. According to The Better India, apart from having such a strong team, the help of more than 10 thousand books was also taken.
The first episode of this show went on air in the year 1988 on 14 November, on the occasion of Pandit Nehru's birthday. The runtime of an episode of this show was 60 to 90 minutes. Roshan Seth played the role of Pandit Nehru in this series. Om Puri worked as a narrator. Many big actors including Pankaj Berry, Ravi Jhankal, KK Raina were part of this show. It is also said that about 350 artists had made their debut through 'Bharat Ek Khoj'.
Shyam Benegal had told in an interview that he wanted to complete the show somehow. He had said, “I used to have such dreams that I had died. I was just worried about what would happen to the show if I really died.” He was afraid that his work might remain incomplete.
