This is not the first time that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has worked on the story of Rani Padmavati. He has also worked on this story earlier in the 1980s.
Regardless of the new generation, it may seem that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has worked for the first time on ‘Padmavati’ and it got so much ruckus. But the old generation can remember those days when TV was being stored in our country at home and this story was shown on National Television. In 1988, Sanjay Bhansali had worked on the story of Padmavati, and every TV house had seen it in ‘Bharat Ek Khoj’. There was no opposition, no ruckus, and also tell that Bhansali was not even connected in Sanjay’s name.
Bharat Ek Khoj was telecasted by ‘Doordarshan’ the National Channel of India for almost a year. The story of Rani Padmavati was shown in its 26th episode ‘The Delhi Sultanate and Padmavati’. This episode was directed by Shyam Benegal. Sanjay Leela Bhansali was an Assistant Editor from this TV series. Then Sanjay Leela Bhansali did not add ‘Leela’ with his name. He did a three year course of editing from the Film and Television Institute of Pune. Bhansali’s work in this TV series is one of his early works. Apart from him, there were three Assistant Editors and those who worked in this long series.
If you watch the episodes, you will find that on National Television, it has been shown that Alauddin Khilji had seen Queen Padmavati through a mirror. In it, it has been said through a song that when the king saw the beautiful Padmavati, he fell unconscious. And in this episode, you can also see ‘Ghumar’. Sanjay Leela Bhansali has also given the song ‘Ghoomar’ in his film, which was filmed on the Padmavati, Deepika Padukone. Padmavati’s Jauhar was not shown in this episode. This story ends when Raja Ratan Singh is rescued from the slaughter of Khilji. At the end of this episode, the name ‘Sanjay Bhansali’ can be seen at the top of the list of assistant editors.
Om Puri did the role of Khilji in this episode. Rajendra Gupta was seen in the role of Raja Ratan Singh. Padmavati was played by Seema Kelkar.
