Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attends a special screening of Shyam Benegal's Samvidhaan

A special 23- minute curtain raiser of Samvidhaan-The Making of the Constitution of India was shown to the President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh yesterday. This special capsule was also simultaneously beamed on Rajya Sabha TV as members of both houses watched Shyam Benegal’s TV venture after 25 years. Director Shyam Benegal sounded elated after the screening. “Telling the story of the birth of a nation is never easy. Especially if that nation is as big and diverse as India. Our founding fathers took 2 years 11 months and 17 days to frame our constitution. The story of telling how they did this has nearly taken us that much time,” said the legendary film maker. Also present on the occasion was Rajya Sabha Television CEO Gurdeep Singh Sappal. “India is the largest democracy in the world. It has more language and ethnic groups than any other nation. Despite the diversity and its many contradictions, India has travelled a great deal as a nation. It is the Constitution of India that created the framework for a strong, vibrant and progressive nation. The inspiring story of the making of our constitution has never been attempted before. At Rajya Sabha Television our endeavour is to create programs that document contemporary history of Independent India,” said Gurdeep. Sachin Khedekar who plays the iconic Dr B R Ambedkar said, “It was a privilege to play the role of a man who is known as the father of the Constitution. But it was perhaps the most challenging role of my life. What I found most exciting is that what Ambedkar and others said in the constituent assembly, continues to be relevant till date. Essaying the role was hence a real delight.” Samvidhaan is a 10 part mini-series produced by Rajya Sabha Television that will go on air beginning March 2 at 10 AM every Sunday. Written by Shama Zaidi and Atul Tiwari, the series stars Sachin Khedekar as Dr B R Ambedkar, Neeraj Kabi as Mahatma Gandhi, Dalip Tahil as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Utkarsh Majumdar as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Gupta as Dr Rajendra Prasad, Tom Alter as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Rajeshwari as Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Narendra Jha as Qaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Divya Dutta as Shrimati Purnima Benerji and Ila Arun as Hansa Mehta among 150 others in the series.