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Bharat Ek Khoj is a 53-episode Indian historical drama based on the book The Discovery of India (1946) by Jawaharlal Nehru 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. 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 film Gandhi.
Original Release
11/13/1988
Cast
| Name | Character |
|---|
| Roshan Seth | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Om Puri | Narrator / Ashoka / Patel Range Gowda / Soldier-1 / Aurangzeb / Agulimal / Alauddin Khilji / Allauddin Khilji / Duryodhan / Krishnadevaraya / Nabakrishna Banerjee / Nigam (Ballia DM) / Raavan / Raj Raja Chola |
| Ravi Jhankal | Soldier-2 / Laxman / Balram / Chandragupta / Kalidasa / Dushyanta / Mir Sadiq / Prithviraj Chouhan / Prithviraj / Rana Sanga / Superintendent of Police / Suteja / Villager #1 |
| Anang Desai | Appar / Vajrabandhu / Vikrambhatta / Chandraprabha / Dadoji Konddeo / Effandi Aslam Beg / Gautam Buddha / Ibrahim Lodi / Nana Saheb / Ram Mohan Roy / Sumantra / Vajashravasa |
| K.K. Raina | Vidur / Shahabuddin Ghori / Radhagupta / Azimullah Khan / Devarishi Narad / Majid Ali / Materialist (Charvaka) / Priyamedha / Virudhaka |
| Pankaj Berry | Ab'ul Fazal / Ashwathhama / Barbarian / Bharat / Harshavardhan / Ibrahim Qutub Shah / Lorik / Mangal Pande / Ramanand / Towncrier |
| Ila Arun | Gangamma / Asandhimitra / Gandhari / Heggaditi / Jodhabai / Kaikeyi / Passion / Sarma / Sheelwati |
| Vijay Kashyap | Shakatara / Mahendravarman / Chand Bardai / Chenna / Harish Mukherjee / Mukhopadhyay / Purnaiyya / Shakuni / Villager #2 |
| Lalit Tiwari | Arjun / Rakshasa / Ajivika / Announcer / Arjuna / Babur / Shulgi / Vilom |
| Salim Ghouse | Ramaraya / Krishna / Rama / Lord Rama / Sri Krishna / Tipu Sultan |
| # | Title | Air Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bharat Mata Ki Jai | Sunday, 13 November 1988 |
| 2 | The Beginnings | Sunday, 20 November 1988 |
| 3 | The Vedic People And The Rigveda | Sunday, 27 November 1988 |
| 4 | Caste Formation | Sunday, 04 December 1988 |
| 5 | Mahabharat: Part 1 | Sunday, 11 December 1988 |
| 6 | Mahabharat: Part 2 | Sunday, 18 December 1988 |
| 7 | Ramayan: Part 1 | Sunday, 25 December 1988 |
| 8 | Ramayan: Part 2 | Sunday, 01 January 1989 |
| 9 | Republics And Kingdoms | Sunday, 08 January 1989 |
| 10 | Negation And Acceptance Of Life | Sunday, 15 January 1989 |
| 11 | Chanakya And Chandragupt: Part 1 | Sunday, 22 January 1989 |
| 12 | Chanakya And Chandragupt: Part 2 | Sunday, 29 January 1989 |
| 13 | Ashok: Part 1 | Sunday, 05 February 1989 |
| 14 | Ashok: Part 2 | Sunday, 12 February 1989 |
| 15 | The Sangam Period - Silapaddirakam: Part 1 | Sunday, 19 February 1989 |
| 16 | The Sangam Period - Silapaddirakam: Part 2 | Sunday, 26 February 1989 |
| 17 | The Classical Age | Sunday, 05 March 1989 |
| 18 | Kalidas And Shakuntala: Part 1 | Sunday, 12 March 1989 |
| 19 | Kalidas And Shakuntala: Part 2 | Sunday, 19 March 1989 |
| 20 | Harshvardhan | Sunday, 26 March 1989 |
| 21 | Bhakti | Sunday, 02 April 1989 |
| 22 | The Chola Empire: Part 1 | Sunday, 09 April 1989 |
| 23 | The Chola Empire: Part 2 | Sunday, 16 April 1989 |
| 24 | The Delhi Sultanate: Part 1 - The Arrival Of Turk Afghans And Prithviraj Raso | Sunday, 23 April 1989 |
| 25 | The Delhi Sultanate: Part 2 - Prithviraj Raso And Alauddin Khilji | Sunday, 30 April 1989 |
| 26 | The Delhi Sultanate: Part 3 - Padmavat And The Tughlaq Dynasty | Sunday, 07 May 1989 |
| 27 | Synthesis | Sunday, 14 May 1989 |
| 28 | The Vijaynagar Empire | Sunday, 21 May 1989 |
| 29 | Feudalism In India | Sunday, 28 May 1989 |
| 30 | The Fall Of The Vijaynagar Empire | Sunday, 04 June 1989 |
| 31 | Rana Sanga, Ibrahim Lodi And Babur | Sunday, 11 June 1989 |
| 32 | Akbar: Part 1 | Sunday, 18 June 1989 |
| 33 | Akbar: Part 2 | Sunday, 25 June 1989 |
| 34 | Golden Hind | Sunday, 02 July 1989 |
| 35 | Aurangzeb: Part 1 | Sunday, 09 July 1989 |
| 36 | Aurangzeb: Part 2 | Sunday, 16 July 1989 |
| 37 | Shivaji: Part 1 | Sunday, 23 July 1989 |
| 38 | Shivaji: Part 2 | Sunday, 30 July 1989 |
| 39 | Company Bahadur | Sunday, 06 August 1989 |
| 40 | Tipu Sultan | Sunday, 13 August 1989 |
| 41 | The Bengal Renaissance And Raja Rammohan Roy | Sunday, 20 August 1989 |
| 42 | 1857: Part 1 | Sunday, 27 August 1989 |
| 43 | 1857: Part 2 | Sunday, 03 September 1989 |
| 44 | Indigo Revolt | Sunday, 10 September 1989 |
| 45 | Mahatma Phule | Sunday, 17 September 1989 |
| 46 | Sir Syed Ahmed Khan | Sunday, 24 September 1989 |
| 47 | Vivekananda | Sunday, 01 October 1989 |
| 48 | Extremists And Moderates | Sunday, 08 October 1989 |
| 49 | And Gandhi Came: Part 1 | Sunday, 15 October 1989 |
| 50 | And Gandhi Came: Part 2 | Sunday, 22 October 1989 |
| 51 | Separatism | Sunday, 29 October 1989 |
| 52 | Do Or Die | Sunday, 05 November 1989 |
| 53 | Epilogue | Sunday, 12 November 1989 |
Directors
Writers
Priya Chandrashekhar, Vasant Dev, Sunil Shanbag, Ashok Mishra, Jawaharlal Nehru, Shama Zaidi, Sandeep Pendse, Gulan Kriplani, Iqtidar Alam Khan, Lal Behari Dey, Deenbandhu Mitra, Javed Siddiqui, Govind P. Deshpande
Cast
| Name | Character |
|---|
| Roshan Seth | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Om Puri | Narrator / Ashoka / Patel Range Gowda / Soldier-1 / Aurangzeb / Agulimal / Alauddin Khilji / Allauddin Khilji / Duryodhan / Krishnadevaraya / Nabakrishna Banerjee / Nigam (Ballia DM) / Raavan / Raj Raja Chola |
| Ravi Jhankal | Soldier-2 / Laxman / Balram / Chandragupta / Kalidasa / Dushyanta / Mir Sadiq / Prithviraj Chouhan / Prithviraj / Rana Sanga / Superintendent of Police / Suteja / Villager #1 |
| Anang Desai | Appar / Vajrabandhu / Vikrambhatta / Chandraprabha / Dadoji Konddeo / Effandi Aslam Beg / Gautam Buddha / Ibrahim Lodi / Nana Saheb / Ram Mohan Roy / Sumantra / Vajashravasa |
| K.K. Raina | Vidur / Shahabuddin Ghori / Radhagupta / Azimullah Khan / Devarishi Narad / Majid Ali / Materialist (Charvaka) / Priyamedha / Virudhaka |
| Pankaj Berry | Ab'ul Fazal / Ashwathhama / Barbarian / Bharat / Harshavardhan / Ibrahim Qutub Shah / Lorik / Mangal Pande / Ramanand / Towncrier |
| Ila Arun | Gangamma / Asandhimitra / Gandhari / Heggaditi / Jodhabai / Kaikeyi / Passion / Sarma / Sheelwati |
| Vijay Kashyap | Shakatara / Mahendravarman / Chand Bardai / Chenna / Harish Mukherjee / Mukhopadhyay / Purnaiyya / Shakuni / Villager #2 |
| Lalit Tiwari | Arjun / Rakshasa / Ajivika / Announcer / Arjuna / Babur / Shulgi / Vilom |
| Salim Ghouse | Ramaraya / Krishna / Rama / Lord Rama / Sri Krishna / Tipu Sultan |
| Pallavi Joshi | Ratna / Kannaki / Seeta / Atri / Mallige / Mallika / Shakuntala |
| John Holyer | Wellesly / Bentinck / British Officer I / Colonel Outram / Journalist / Mr. Shakespeare / Lord Canning / Simon / Thomas Roe / Verelst |
| Devendra Malhotra | Ashwalayan / Acharya Vararuchi / Ajjaji / Baba Lals Shah / Chitto Pandey / Dashrath / Ishanashiva / Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar |
| Anjan Srivastav | Dhanananda / Dhrutarashtra / Yama / Appaji / Sansthanaka / Wajid Ali Shah |
| Irrfan Khan | Bade Khan / Al-Beruni / Badayuni / Malayaketu / Michael Madhusudan Dutt / Saleem / Samiullah |
| Ahmed Khan | Aqil Khan / Mahmud Ghazni / Yudhishthir / Dr. Ahsan / Hussain Nizam Shah / Nawab Mehmood |
| Ravi Khemu | Anand / Buddhist Monk / Messenger / Radheyshyam Sharma / Shah Alam / Street Singer (Saint Poet Basavanna) / Street Singer |
| Virendra Razdan | Bahadur Shah Zafar / Bhishma / Bindusara / Ambarish |
| Tom Alter | Chairman / Colonel Smyth / deRozio / Dubuc / Henry Lawrence / Collector of Kanpur / Larmour / Sykes |
| Veerendra Saxena | Birbal / Rachanna / Madhav / Mahanaman / Matul |
Producers
| Name | Role |
|---|
| Raj Pius | Executive Producer |
| Shyam Benegal | Producer |
