The Sword of Tipu Sultan (TV serial)
Encyclopedia
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.
. Akbar Khan, the brother of Sanjay Khan
, directed the first 20 episodes of the serial for a period of 18 months. The remaining episodes were directed by Sanjay Khan
himself, and he also played the leading role of Tipu Sultan
. A total of 52 episodes were shot, some of them in the Premier Studios
in the city of Mysore in Karnataka
. The serial was based on a novel of the same name, written by the Montreal
-based author Bhagwan S Gidwani. The novel was a best-seller, having sold about 200,000 copies, translated into many languages and reprinted in 44 editions. Apart from being the author, Gidwani also wrote the screenplay and script for the 60 episodes of the serial. The last few episodes were shot after the fire accident, a few years later. Other prominent actors who were chosen for this serial included Anant Mahadevan
, Mukesh Rishi
, Shahbaz Khan
and Deepika
.
/ Urdu
language on the Doordarshan
channel in the year 1990. In 2001, it was also telecast on Star Plus
. The episodes were also translated into Bengali
and broadcasted on the BTV
in the early 1990s and into Tamil
and broadcast on the DD Podhigai Channel in 2006.. In the BTV broadcast, certain portions of dialogue were censored. Outside the Subcontinent, the serial was also shown on Channel 4
in the United Kingdom
during the early 1990s. Other countries included Iran, Indonesia and Mauritius.
Now Original Pack of 12 DVD's by Ultra Distributors Pvt. Ltd. is on sale cost is About RS 1500/- INR
http://www.ultraindia.com/title_detail.php?movie_id=14760&type=DVD
against the telecast of this serial. The petitioners argued that the serial was not based on the real life and deeds of Tipu Sultan
. After hearing the arguments, the Supreme Court gave a judgment that the serial could be telecasted but that a notice has to be displayed along with each episode stating: No claim is made for the accuracy or authenticity of any episode being depicted in the serial. This serial is a fiction and has nothing to do either with the life or rule of Tipu Sultan. The serial is a dramatised presentation of Bhagwan Gidwani's novel.
(248°F
) because of huge lights being used for the shooting. All these factors contributed to the massive fire, and the final death toll was 62. Sanjay Khan himself suffered major burns and had to spend 13 months in hospital and undergo 72 surgeries. An ex-gratia amount of Rs.
5000 was paid to some of the victims of the fire.
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
that was first broadcast on the Doordarshan
DoorDarshan
Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...
channel in India
Television in India
Television is one of the major mass media of India and is a huge industry and has thousands of programmes in all the states of India. The small screen has produced numerous celebrities of their own kind some even attaining national fame. TV soaps are extremely popular with housewives as well as...
in the year 1990
1990 in television
For the American TV schedule, see: 1990-91 United States network television schedule.The year 1990 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1990.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:...
. Based on a novel by Bhagwan Gidwani, this serial was a portrayal of the life and times of Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan , also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, at that time an officer in the Mysorean army, and his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-Nissa...
, the erstwhile ruler of Srirangapatna
Srirangapatna
Srirangapatna is a town in Mandya district of the Indian state of Karnataka...
. 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
Premier Studios
Premier Studios is a full-service marketing and communications firm established in 1988 and located in Lenexa, Kansas. It is independently owned by Gerald Smith....
where the serial was being shot and claimed 62 lives.
Production
The television series was produced by the company Numero Uno International which was owned by the movie producer and director Sanjay KhanSanjay Khan
-Career:Khan made his debut in the 1964 Chetan Anand film "Haqeeqat" followed by the Rajshri film Dosti. In the 1960s and 1970s Khan starred in the movies Dus Lakh, Ek Phool Do Mali and Intaqam. He also acted opposite his brother Feroz in three films Upaasna , Mela and Nagin...
. Akbar Khan, the brother of Sanjay Khan
Sanjay Khan
-Career:Khan made his debut in the 1964 Chetan Anand film "Haqeeqat" followed by the Rajshri film Dosti. In the 1960s and 1970s Khan starred in the movies Dus Lakh, Ek Phool Do Mali and Intaqam. He also acted opposite his brother Feroz in three films Upaasna , Mela and Nagin...
, directed the first 20 episodes of the serial for a period of 18 months. The remaining episodes were directed by Sanjay Khan
Sanjay Khan
-Career:Khan made his debut in the 1964 Chetan Anand film "Haqeeqat" followed by the Rajshri film Dosti. In the 1960s and 1970s Khan starred in the movies Dus Lakh, Ek Phool Do Mali and Intaqam. He also acted opposite his brother Feroz in three films Upaasna , Mela and Nagin...
himself, and he also played the leading role of Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan , also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, at that time an officer in the Mysorean army, and his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-Nissa...
. A total of 52 episodes were shot, some of them in the Premier Studios
Premier Studios
Premier Studios is a full-service marketing and communications firm established in 1988 and located in Lenexa, Kansas. It is independently owned by Gerald Smith....
in the city of Mysore in Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
. The serial was based on a novel of the same name, written by the Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
-based author Bhagwan S Gidwani. The novel was a best-seller, having sold about 200,000 copies, translated into many languages and reprinted in 44 editions. Apart from being the author, Gidwani also wrote the screenplay and script for the 60 episodes of the serial. The last few episodes were shot after the fire accident, a few years later. Other prominent actors who were chosen for this serial included Anant Mahadevan
Anant Mahadevan
Anant Mahadevan , also credited as Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, is an actor and director of Marathi and Hindi films and television serials in India, who hails from Kerala ; a state down the south of INDIA. He has acted in Bollywood films since the 1980s playing character/minor roles...
, Mukesh Rishi
Mukesh Rishi
Mukesh Rishi is an Indian film actor who works in Bollywood and Tollywood and Canada. Coming from a brahmin family in Jammu, Mukesh was the first person in his family to try his luck in the world of cinema...
, Shahbaz Khan
Shahbaz Khan
Shahbaz Khan is an Australian climatologist and hydrologist. He is currently Chief of Section on Sustainable Water Resources Development and Management...
and Deepika
Deepika
Deepika, a Malayalam language newspaper, is one of the oldest newspapers published in India. Started in 1887, it is the oldest Malayalam newspaper now in circulation. Deepika publishes editions from Kottayam, Kochi, Kannur, Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. It was controlled by the Syro...
.
Telecast
The serial was first telecast in the HindiHindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
/ Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
language on the Doordarshan
DoorDarshan
Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...
channel in the year 1990. In 2001, it was also telecast on Star Plus
STAR Plus
STAR Plus is a Hindi language general entertainment television channel based in India. The channel is part of the STAR TV network's bouquet of channels...
. The episodes were also translated into Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
and broadcasted on the BTV
Bangladesh Television
Bangladesh Television , also known by the acronym BTV, is the state-owned Television network in Bangladesh. It started broadcasting as Pakistan Television in what was then East Pakistan on 25 December 1964. It was renamed Bangladesh Television after the independence in 1971. Broadcasts in full...
in the early 1990s and into Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
and broadcast on the DD Podhigai Channel in 2006.. In the BTV broadcast, certain portions of dialogue were censored. Outside the Subcontinent, the serial was also shown on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during the early 1990s. Other countries included Iran, Indonesia and Mauritius.
Now Original Pack of 12 DVD's by Ultra Distributors Pvt. Ltd. is on sale cost is About RS 1500/- INR
http://www.ultraindia.com/title_detail.php?movie_id=14760&type=DVD
Petition against release
Petitions were filed in the Supreme Court of IndiaSupreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
against the telecast of this serial. The petitioners argued that the serial was not based on the real life and deeds of Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan , also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, at that time an officer in the Mysorean army, and his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-Nissa...
. After hearing the arguments, the Supreme Court gave a judgment that the serial could be telecasted but that a notice has to be displayed along with each episode stating: No claim is made for the accuracy or authenticity of any episode being depicted in the serial. This serial is a fiction and has nothing to do either with the life or rule of Tipu Sultan. The serial is a dramatised presentation of Bhagwan Gidwani's novel.
Fire accident
A major fire accident took place on 8 February 1989 in the Premier Studios of Mysore where the serial was being shot. Non-availability of fire fighting equipment and ignorance of fire safety standards have been quoted as the major reasons for this fire. Loose wiring and absence of ventilators were further causes for the fire to spread. Instead of fire-proofing material, the walls had gunny bags and the temperature rose to around 120°CCelsius
Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
(248°F
Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees...
) because of huge lights being used for the shooting. All these factors contributed to the massive fire, and the final death toll was 62. Sanjay Khan himself suffered major burns and had to spend 13 months in hospital and undergo 72 surgeries. An ex-gratia amount of Rs.
Rupee
The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...
5000 was paid to some of the victims of the fire.