Bharat Ek Khoj (The Discovery of India)

Bharat Ek Khoj (Hindi: भारत एक खोज, Urdu: بھارت ایک کھوج‎, English: The Discovery of India) is a 53-episode Indian historical drama based on the book The Discovery of India (1946) by Jawaharlal Nehru, that dramatically unfolds the 5000-year history of India from its beginnings to the coming of independence in 1947. The drama was directed, written and produced by Shyam Benegal with cinematographer V. K. Murthy in 1988 for state-owned Doordarshan. Benegal’s regular script collaborator Shama Zaidi also co-wrote the script.

The series dramatically unfolds and explores the five-thousand year history of India from its beginnings to the coming of the independence in 1947. Its cast include Om Puri, Roshan Seth, Tom Alter and Sadashiv Amrapurkar. Jawaharlal Nehru was portrayed by Roshan Seth, who had previously portrayed Nehru in Richard Attenborough‘s Gandhi (1982).[3] While Seth enacted the part of Nehru as the story-teller at key points in every episode, Om Puri provided the narration.

Shyam Benegal (Hindi: श्याम बेनेगल; born 14 December 1934) is an Indian director and screenwriter. With his first four feature films Ankur (1973),Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the “middle cinema” in India. He has expressed dislike of the term, preferring his work to be called New or Alternate cinema.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991. On 8 August 2007, Benegal was awarded the highest award in Indian cinema for lifetime achievement, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2005. He has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi seven times.