When Naseeruddin Shah Was Chhatrapati Shivaji...And Om Puri Was Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb seems to be grabbing quite a few headlines these days, first coming into discussion with Akshaye Khanna’s portrayal in Chhava and now with politician Abu Azmi’s foot-in-the-mouth comment regarding him. But if you rewind back to the late ’80s, we saw a different portrayal of Aurangzeb and Shivaji.

Created by Shyam Benegal, Bharat Ek Khoj was a 53-episode Indian historical drama based on Jawaharlal Nehru’s book The Discovery of India (1946). The series covers India’s 5,000-year history and aired on Doordarshan from 1988-1989. It is in this series that episodes 35 and 36 deal with Aurangzeb, while the next two are dedicated to Shivaji. Although by current standards one would find the episodes quite slow, there are two scenes worth watching.

The first is Om Puri’s introduction scene, where the mother of Qutb-Ul-Mulk (ruler of Golconda) meets him to ask for his forgiveness, and Aurangzeb ends the discussion with a ruthless demand of Rs 1 crore.

The second scene is in Shivaji’s episode, where Aurangzeb faces off with him. Naseer’s glowering eyes effectively portray his anger at the treatment meted out to him in Aurangzeb’s court, and the scene that follows plays purely on the strength of two of the greatest actors in Indian cinema, Shah and Puri. A cursory look at the YouTube comments section of the video will reveal an oft-repeated comment from viewers: “A Hindu actor playing a Muslim character and a Muslim actor playing a great Hindu ruler, truly great stuff.”