NEW DELHI, July 10: Even as Doordarshan waits to confirm whether the Rs five crore it will spend on noted filmmakers Girish Karnad, Shyam Benegal et al's ode to 50 years of India's Independence will come out of the Department of Culture's pocket, its pet rival Star TV has jumped on the patriotic bandwagon.

While Star TV is still considering taking up Doordarshan on its offer of telecasting the midnight session of the two Houses of Parliament on August 14, it has already set in motion the shooting of Gatha, Ramesh Sippy's weekly soap which is being shot at Film City, Mumbai. Directed by Sippy, it has been written by Manohar Shyam Joshi, the writer of Hum Log and Buniyaad. The story is expected to revolve around a family in post-Partition India, a kind of step forward from Buniyaad.On the anvil too is a celebratory song (shades of Mile sur mera tumhara?), the lyrics of which have been penned by Javed Akhtar and the music composed by Zakir Hussain.

Bhaskar Ghose will be anchoring a two-hour-long show, which will be aired on August 14. The show, to be shot at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, will have scenes from India's history enacted by actors from the Capital's stage.

Star TV will also be sponsoring India's Quest, a series of seven half-hour documentaries. While Govind Nihalani's Tamas will be aired again, what is expected to be the piece de resistance is Pamela Rooks' adaptation of the Khushwant Singh classic Train to Pakistan. The film was shot in Punjab earlier this year and stars Rajat Kapur, Nirmal Pandey and Smriti Mishra.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.