Mumbai: Shyam Benegal’s television adaptation of Jawaharlal Nehru’s The Discovery Of India (Bharat Ek Khoj) recreated and created history. Benegal has now taken on another even more daunting challenge. He is all set to film the genesis of the Indian constitution for television in a miniseries that is expected to reach out from its natural habitat, the home viewing medium, to educational institutions across the country and also become the fully-fledged definitive and comprehensive over-view of the Indian constitution for global representations at political summits.
Benegal admits,it’s a daunting a task.“I am seriously working on a miniseries on the making of the Indian constitution.After Bharat Ek Khoj, I never even looked at television. But now I felt it was high-time we took a clear and dispassionate look at what the Indian constitution means. It’s an incredible piece of work. Our constitution is a marvel. And we’ve made many amendments in it. It’s an organic mutating document. Each generations has its own imperatives. How well does the Constitution meet those demands of changing times?”
Benegal would do dramatized version of the constitution.“The Constitution is very dramatic.
Look at how it has lived up to the challenge of linguistic religious and cultural diversities. To have a united nation and a homogenous constitution for such a diversity of people and cultures are a miracle.”
“My look at the Constitution would have actors, and very prominent ones, enacting the episodes. We need to view the constitution dispassionately because it gives us our identity as Indians, tells us what we are meant to be as a nation”says Benegal.
He further adds, Research work has already started. Atul Tiwari, Shama Zaidi and Benegal are scripting the story of the Constitution.“We’re proceeding apace. We’ve to open up our history without prejudice.”
