NEW DELHI: When Jawaharlal Nehru sat in Ahmednagar Jail in Ahmednagar Fort writing ?Discovery of India? between 1942 and 1946, he could not have imagined the book would not only become a major scholarly work on 5000 years of Indian history, but also get converted into a major television series.

Since its first production in 1988, the 53-episode ?Discovery of India? in English and ?Bharat Ek Khoj? in Hindi directed by the eminent filmmaker Shyam Benegal have been telecast several times on different channels of Doordarshan and also on Lok Sabha TV.

To mark the death anniversary of Nehru who died on 27 May 1964, DD Bharati is commencing the telecast of ?Bharat Ek Khoj? on 27 May. The series will be telecast from Monday to Friday and again on Sunday at 7.30 pm.

Created by Benegal, the series had renowned actor Om Puri not only enacting several mythological and historical characters but also was the narrator of the series, though Roshan Seth, who also played the role of Nehru, was the narrator in some episodes. Others in the cast included: Tom Alter, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Naseeruddin Shah, Lucky Ali, Seema Kelkar, Mita Vashisht, Pallavi Joshi,rivastav, Sohaila Kapoor, Ila Arun, and Irrfan Khan. The cinematographer for the series was the highly-awarded V K Murthy.
Meanwhile, Doordarshan is telecasting another serial linked to the teachings of one of the most revered human beings in the world, Mahatma Gandhi.

The serial titled ?Ek Kiran Roshni Ki? is being telecast on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 9.00 PM on DD National.
 
Produced by Ashwini Sidwani and directed by Rajesh Gupta and Aloknath Dixit, it has music by Ravindra Jain. Zarina Wahab, Anjan Srivastav, Anang Desai and Rajesh Puri are in the main cast.

?Ek Kiran Roshni Ki? is a story of Roshni, a girl who fights against injustice and brings about social change by following Gandhiji?s footsteps. Corruption, glamour and social etiquette of the modern world do not influence Roshni?s love for humanity or her simplicity. These qualities may have become a liability but undeterred she soldiers on. The serial has focused on women and children and highlighted the issues faced by them such as child labour, female infanticide, and female feticide. It has also tackled the issue of termination of pregnancies particularly in cases where the health of the mother is at risk.

The serial promotes social justice, national consciousness, national integration, communal harmony and the upliftment of women as well as cater to the special needs of the youth.