Shyam Benegal directs TV series 'Bharat Ek Khoj', in Puri

From the archive record

Shyam Benegal on the sets of the famous TV series Bharat Ek Khoj episode 13 on Samrat Ashoka. The cinematographer V.K Murthy takes the shot of Om Puri's performance. With Om Puri as Ashoka, K.K. Raina as Radhagupta, Ila Arun as Asandhimitra, Aparajita Krishna as Devi, Achyut Potdar as Sukhvihar Virendra Razdan as Bindusara, Maqsoom Ali as Tissa, Anang Desai as Vikram Bhatt, Lalit Tiwari as Agivika, S.P. Dubey as Mahendra Bhatt, Ravi Kemmu as the Monk, Jaspal Sandhu as Sushima, and Poonam Jha as Wife of Bidndusara. The scene opens in Ashoka’s many-pillared hall in his palace at Pataliputra dug up in Nehru’s time in an incredible state of preservation. Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, succeeded to the great Magadha Empire around 273 BC. Already the empire included a far greater part of