Unlike today’s saas bahu saga, which has dominated the TV space in India today, content was quite different around 40 years ago. From huge sets to a huge star cast and an interesting storyline, this TV serial kept everyone captivated and also taught India’s history. This show is none other than ‘Bharat Ek Khoj’, based on India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s book ‘The Discovery of India’.
The show was directed, written and produced by Shyam Benegal with cinematographer V. K. Murthy in 1988, and it aired on Doordarshan. Several actors who worked on Bharat Ek Khoj went on to become stars in Bollywood. It starred Om Puri, Irrfan Khan, Lucky Ali, Ila Arun, Shabana Azmi, Alok Nath, Piyush Mishra, Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Tom Alter in pivotal roles. Meanwhile, Roshan Seth played the role of Jawaharlal Nehru and narrated the series.
Bharat Ek Khoj captured several aspects of India’s history before its independence. The show brilliantly portrayed the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Chandragupta era, Ashoka’s empire, the Chola Empire, Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal empire, including Akbar and Aurangzeb, the 1857 war and many more.
