Watch Old Doordarshan Serials - Clips and Info

Rajani 1985 - The Crusader
Basu Chatterji's first foray in Television - within a month this one was a mega hit with 'Rajni' becoming a household name across the country. Priya Tendulkar, better known as the firebrand crusader 'Rajni' hit the national limelight for her role as a crusader fighting for the rights of the common man in the TV serial 'Rajni'. The serial, first telecast in the mid-1980s on the then government-monopoly broadcaster Doordarshan, instantly turned her into a cult idol. Ordinary people would approach Chatterji and Tendulkar for help. Even government officials from different parts of India asked Tendulkar, who was known to the masses as Rajni, help to instil confidence in the people's minds. Source: Basu Chatterjee Web

Kachchi Dhoop
Source: Rudraa
Kachchi Dhoop is the unforgettable television series written by Chitra Palekar and directed by Amol Palekar. This children's classic endeared itself to viewers with its fresh approach to timeless themes of love and sacrifice. The joys of growing up, discovering new friends, adolescence and first love. the facets of life are wonderfully brought out on screen. Marking the debut of Bhagyashree and Ashutosh Gowarikar, the story of a single mother, her three daughters, their friends and neighbors touched the nation's heart.
It's Diwali and Alka (Bhagyashree), Nandu (Shyamalee Palekar) and Meenu (Purnima Patwardhan) are running around to buy a fitting gift for their working mother. Returning from a futile hunt, they find hand-made gifts from their mother. As they are sitting round glumly, they discover a mystery gift on their verandah. This sets them off on an a voyage of discovery where they make new friends, Shanky (Prashant Bhat), his grandfather Admiral... (Amol Palekar) and his tution teacher (Ashuthosh Gowarikar). Fights, disagreements, friendships, sacrifice, jealously, first love are some of the emotions that they face and emerge stronger to face life.
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Yeh jo hai zindagi 1984
Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi (literal meaning: this thing called life) is a Sitcom on Indian television, aired for the first time in 1984. It was written by comedy writer Sharad Joshi and directed by S. S. Oberoi and Raman Kumar.

Title Track of Yeh jo hai zindagi

 
It was one of the first sitcoms and one of the biggest hit shows on Indian television after the state owned television, Doordarshan, started sponsoring its programs.
Source: WIKI
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Flop show 1989Flop show was a comedy serial on Indian television. The show was directed by satirical humourist Jaspal Bhatti, and aired on DD National in 1989.
The 10 episodes of it are all satires done on social problems with the common man. The show was immensely popular and still gets repeated re-runs on Doordarshan. The show was shot completely in Chandigarh. The cast remained same in every episode but their characters got changed. Another USP of the show was the joke in between the casting at the beginning and a song at the end of every episode. Source: WIKI
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Chanakya 1990 
Chankya is a Historical saga of establishing the Mauryan empire in India. The Television show was directed by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi. He himself played the lead role i.e., as Chanakya.
Source: imdb
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Bharat Ek Khoj 1988is a 53 episode television series based that dramatically unfolds the 5000 year history of India from its beginnings to the coming of independence in 1947. It is a series of explorations into the different periods of Indian history and was made in 1988 by the writer, director and producer Shyam Benegal. The serial is based on a book written by the historian and the first Prime Minister of independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, titled The Discovery of India

This was telecast on Doordarshan. The starcast included Om Puri and others. Pandit Nehru was portrayed by Roshan Seth 
Source: WIKI
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Surabhi 1993
Surabhi the TV show hosted by Renuka Shah and Siddharth Kak was allabout finding the treasures of talent hidden from ordinary people tothe Big names be it be in Handicrafts, Business ideas, successfulartists. It was also a lot about discovering little wonders in India. Itwas a combination of all things. This was a Documentary show and theway they presented it was simply great and it was really interesting.
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Byomkesh Bakshi 1993
Byomkesh meets his lifelong friend, Ajit in Satyanveshi(Satya-Truth and anveshi - investigator), where he introduces himself as a "truth seeker" under the alias Atulchandra Mitra. Later, Byomkesh and Ajit share a flat on Harrison Road. Ajit's ambition from the start is to be a writer and he becomes moderately successful by narrating their cases. He buys a car in the later years of World War II. Byomkesh and Ajit get many of their leads from their favorite newspaper, Dainik Kalketu. Byomkesh marries Satyaboti, someone he meets while investigating the murder of Karalicharan Basu. Later, they buy a house. Puntiram is their faithful servant through most of the novels. The sympathetic police officer, Purandar Pandey, who helps out in many cases first makes his appearance in Chitrochor. During the Durgo-rahasyo case, Byomkesh's son is born. In many of the novels written after the war, Sharadindu changes from a first-person narrative to a more impersonal third-person format. Source:WIKI
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Ramayan 1987
Ramayan is a highly successful Indian television series created, written, and directed by Ramanand Sagar. The 78-episode series originally aired weekly on Doordarshan from January 25, 1987, to July 31, 1988, on Sundays at 9:30 a.m It is a television adaptation of the ancient Indian religious epic of the same name and is primarily based on Valmiki's Ramayan and Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas. It is also partly derived from portions of Kamban's Kambaramayanam and other works.
Source: WIKI
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Malgudi Days

Malgudi Days is a collection of short stories by R.K.Narayan that focused on the trial and tribulations of a small Indian town of Malgudi. According to R.K. Narayan, Malgudi is a town "habited by timeless characters who could be living anywhere in the world" and is located on the banks of river Sarayu and surrounded by the Mempi Hills.
The serial was directed by the late Kannada actor and director, Shankar Nag, and was shot entirely near Agumbe in Shimoga District, Karnataka. The music was rendered by L. Vaidyanathan and was produced by T.S. Narasimhan of the Padam Rag Films. It included many of Narayan's short stories and novels such as Swami and Friends and The Vendor of Sweets.
Source: WIKI
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Mirza Ghalib 1988

This TV Serial was made by Gulzar.
Mirza Ghalib was a famous Urdu and Persian poet of the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century. His original name was Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan. Ghalib was his pen name. He was born on December 27, 1796. Mirza Ghalib was of Turkish descent. His father and uncle died when he was young. He migrated to Delhi. According to historical documents, Ghalib had no formal education. When he was thirteen years old he married into an aristocratic family (circa. 1810). He had seven children but none of them survived. This pain is apparent in his ghazals.
Source: WIKI
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Tipu Sultan 1990

The Sword of Tipu Sultan was a television serial that was first broadcast on the Doordarshan channel in India in the year 1990. Based on a novel by Bhagwan Gidwani, this serial was a portrayal of the life and times of Tipu Sultan, the erstwhile ruler of Srirangapatna. The serial faced lot of controversies that included a major fire accident that took place on the sets in the year 1989. The fire which took place in the city of Mysore, burnt down a major portion of the Premier Studios where the serial was being shot and claimed 62 lives.
Source: WIKI
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Vikram aur Betaal 1988

Betaal Pachisi, written nearly 2,500 years ago by Mahakavi Somdev Bhatt, are spellbinding stories told to the wise King Vikramaditya by the wily ghost Betaal. The tales of Vikram and Betaal possess a wealth of pageantry and splendor of long ago. Source: SAGAR TV

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Dekh Bhai Dekh 1993

Dekh Bhai Dekh is a Hindi sitcom revolving around the Diwan family, who live as an extended family in an ancestral bungalow in the suburbs of Bombay. The family consists of 11 members, aged from 6 years to 65 years, including a father, mother, two sons and their families. The serial takes the viewer through the various ups and downs faced by the family and through crazy and unexpected things which happen to them with unfailing regularity. Their never-say-die attitude helps them overcome sibling rivalry, boyfriend troubles, business problems, in-law problems, etc. A distinctive feature of this show was its fast speaking characters. Source: WIKI


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Chunauti 1987

Chunauti was a window into the psyche of college life in India. The serial profiled an idealist college principal Mr. Shastri and his travails with the problems that plague students including admissions, donations, ragging, miserable hostel conditions, drug addiction, irresponsible teachers, mass copying, and other malpractices. Character graphs and a well-crafted emotional drama covering every aspect of college life in detail, made Chunauti a big hit. Chunauti highlighted the higher education system and generated tremendous response from thinkers, planners and common masses. In the serial, Principal Shastri faces adversity. In the end however, with the assistance of many of his students and colleagues he emerges victorious. Chunauti aired 22 episodes each about 25 minutes in Hindi. Source: WIKI 

Listen to the title track

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Darpan (Mirror) 1985
Each episode was a classic written by eminent Indi an authors adapted in Hindi by Chatterji. This one won him a lot of critical acclaim as audience were exposed to regional literature. Source: Basu Chatterjee Web

Listen to the Title Track
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Subah
A similar show to Chunauti
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Mahabharat 1988

Mahabharat is a successful Indian television series based on the ancient Indian epic

Mahabharata. The 94-episode series originally ran from 1988 to 1990. It was produced by B. R. Chopra and directed by his son, Ravi Chopra. Each episode is approximately 45 minutes long.It was shown in the UK by the BBC, where it achieved audience figures of 5 million, unheard of for a subtitled series being aired in the afternoon. Source: WIKI
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Kakkaji Kahin 1988 VIDEO CLIP
Kakkaji Kahin, a tele-serial and a political satire, written by the renowned playwright Manohar Shyam Joshi where Om Puri played the lead role of kakkaji, remains his favourite.
Source: Basu Chatterjee Web



Ek Ruka Hua Faisla 1986

One dissenting juror in a murder trial tries to influence the verdict with his personal prejudices and biases. Basu introduced a new set of actors all graduates from National School of Drama - like K.K.Raina, Pankaj Kappor, Annu Kapoor, S.M.Zaheer. The story was quite uniquely written by Mannu Bhandari titled Mahabhoj. Source: Basu Chatterjee Web
CLICK HERE to watch all the Parts

Charitraheen
This serial was based on the famous novel by Sharat Chandra. I read on the internet the story was similar to Devdas. A rich student who has an affair with a widow even after being married. I am not very sure about the story. Here's a title track and Still clip. The title track is very good.
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TAMAS 1987

Tamas (Translation - Darkness) (1987) is a controversial and highly acclaimed television film directed by Govind Nihalani based on classic Hindi novel by Bhisham Sahni (1974), which had won the author, the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975.
The film is about the exodus of a Sikh and Hindu family to India, in the backdrop of riot striken Pakistan, at the time of Partition of India in 1947. It shows a gruesome side of politics, and the compassionate side of humanity that survives any carnage.
The film was first shown on India's national broadcaster Doordarshan as a mini series and later as one-off 4-hour long feature film.
The film also won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction in 1988, for Vanraj Bhatia.
Source: WIKI

Some intro clips of TAMAS 1987Title Track
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Opening Scene
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Mahanagar
Mahanagar is based on the city of life. How was this city built, what happens in such big city, struggles for existence, making money. People runing around sometimes forget they have a life to live for themselves too. But everyone is so busy living their lives mechanically, some live selfishly and some live for others. I miss those good old times so much.
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Uppanyas
“Uppanyas” means novel. A novel way to present the life and time of a novel writer Mohan Vatsal, a semi retired novelist who meets Yashodhra, an ardent fan, who inspires him to re- start writing novels. This is how “Uppanyas” is born. The writer tries to draw parallels between his real life and the novel that he is writing (fiction). Source: www.rajshri.com
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Talaash
Its a story about a Writer who visits his Mom's friend casually, there he learns that her son had never visited home from a training. So the Writer decides to look out for him and get him home. He starts his journey and writes about the events n situations he comes across. He meets different kinds of people and associates lot of emotions with his struggle to find his friend. I believe thru this Sitcom viewers liked to question themselves as to what one seeks in Life. Are we clear of what we absoleutly want in life? Why is the thirst of wanting everything in life - neverending? I really loved this show it was a great sitcom made back then in the early 90s, if i am not wrong.
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Paying Guest
This show was somewhat close to Rajani 1985 i think, a retired man Mr.K Trivedi living with his wife, whose kids are abroad decide to have paying guests in their house. The show was all about some problems in the lives of Paying guests and the owner get involved and help solve the issues concluding with a moral message in the end of the episodes. The guests learn so many things from the old couple, get inspired to the right path.

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Fauji

Fauji was a great show aired back in 80s its about trainees in a commondo school. During the training period they learn abt discipline, love n life. The great bollywood badshah "SHARUKH KHAN" of today started his acting thru this sitcom i believe.
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Karamchand 1985
Karamchand is a old hindi serial that aired on doordarshan in mid 80s, directed by Pankaj Parashar. I believe it was the first Detective serial starring Pankaj Kapoor. I remember he used it lot of carrots and he used to make it so much fun making his Secretary look so dumb at times. The famous line "Kitty dont be silly". Well I used to really like that show a lot very interesting and bit thrilling too in those times.
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EXCLUSIVE KIDS SHOW
Ghayab Aaya 1990

Ghayab Aya was India's first completely "Made in India" serialized animation film. The film, serialized in 10-part, was first shown on the National television network Doordarshan on June 17, 1990. The story revolved around the adventures of Ghayab the friendly always do- gooder 'Casper type' naughty ghost. Ghayab Aya was directed and animated by Suddhasattwa Basu, who first started his career in 1981 as a designer and an illustrator for the famous TARGET magazine for children.Episode 8 of Ghayab Aya has been uploaded to Youtube by its maker Suddhasattwa Basu.
Source: 8ate Web
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