BBC plans TV serial on Mahatma Gandhi

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) plans to produce a television serial on Mahatma Gandhi, with an Indian director and cast.
“The serial will consist of 26 parts of 30 minutes each. It will be made in English and Hindi, with BBC telecasting the English version,” director Devendra Khandelwal, a Mumbai-based short film and documentary maker, told UNI here. A 60-year old theatre actor from Mumbai, identified only as ‘Dr Sooraj,’ had been chosen to play the Mahatma, but the search was still on for an actress to play the role of Kasturba, he said.
“I want the characters in the serial to be realistic. That’s the reason I have chosen the 60-year old Dr Sooraj for the main role. I want my Kasturba to look exactly like Kasturba. I have been searching for my Kasturba for the last two years, but in vain,” Mr Khandelwal said. “I spent five years working on the script for the serial. So I don’t mind spending a little more time looking for (an actress to play) Kasturba,” he also said.
The serial would be shot simultaneously in English and Hindi with the same cast and crew, the director said. The Hindi version would be telecast by an Indian television channel, and he would start looking for a slot once actual production commenced, Mr Khandelwal said.
Incidentally, Mr Khandelwal claims that he had made the highest number of short films on Mahatma Gandhi, including ‘Mani Bhawan.’ The documentary maker’s plans included a 500-part animation series on the great men of India, from Raja Harishchandra, to India’s missile man and former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.
Mr Khandelwal said that besides numerous documentaries and short films, he had made television commercials and corporate films, besides one feature film ‘Maut Ki Sazaa.’ He has acted in several films in Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati and Bengali, including Basu Bhattacharya’s ‘Tumhara Kalloo,’ Basu Chatterji’s ‘Khatta Meetha,’ ‘Jeena Yahan,’ ‘Durga,’ and ‘Kamla Ki Maut,’ and B R Ishara’s ‘Sautela Pati.’ He heads the Indian Infotainment Media Corporation (IIMC), a film production house.
IIMC will host ‘Gandhi Panorama,’ an international festival of films on Mahatma Gandhi, at Sewagram in adjoining Wardha district from October 2 to 4. The festival, the first of its kind in the world, would feature films of all categories from several counties, Mr Khandelwal said. There would neither be an entry fee nor awards, and the festival would be held every five years, he added.
The Limca book of Records 2006 lists IIMC (www.iimc.co.in, www.culturalfilmsindia.com) as the biggest producer of short films in 35 mm/16 mm in the private sector, and Mr Khandelwal with the highest number of short films to his credit. IIMC produced 78 documentaries between 2004 and 2007.
(UNI, Nagpur, September 28, 2008)