MUMBAI: Star India CEO Uday Shankar and Aamir Khan will be honoured by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Government of India, in recognition of their efforts to create awareness against social discrimination through `Satyamev Jayate.?

The commission will felicitate Shankar and Khan at an award function being organised to mark the International Valmiki Day in New Delhi on 18 October.

Shankar said, "Satyamev Jayate was a natural evolution of content, given Star?s steadfast and widening focus on socially relevant issues. This recognition will spur us to advance in this path of leveraging the power of TV to act as a change agent."

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Social, Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit and other political and civil society leaders who have worked for the cause of social equality will attend the awards function.

Star said in a short span, the show questioned social mores, helped shape mindsets and transcended borders to top popularity charts across the globe. It left an imprint on the minds of people with compelling tales from everyday life.

Satyamev Jayate was a narrative of real stories from across India that touched and inspired millions of people.

NEW DELHI: The flag-hoisting ceremony by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his subsequent address to the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort will be telecast live tomorrow morning from 7 am on Doordarshan?s national channel DD One and also on the primary channels of All India Radio (AIR).

Later at 8.30 am, the message of the Governor and Chief Minister of Delhi will be telecast by DD 1.

On 16 August, DD 1 will telecast a report on the Independence Day ceremonies all over the country from 8.30 am.

DD 1 will simulcast Satyamev Jayate ka Safar: Aamir Khan Show on 15 August at 11 am, repeat telecast of which will air on 16 August at 9.30 am.

History TV18 will telecast tomorrow evening at 7 pm ?Asia at War?, a documentary on the Rani of Jhansi regiment of the Indian National Army formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose comprising expatriate women living in Malaysia and Singapore at a time during the World War II when Japan was the enemy. Idealistic and young, these women left jobs in rubber plantations to join his army in a fight to end British colonialism in India. The Rani of Jhansi regiment was the only regiment outside of the USSR made up entirely of women. Although they participated in military and combat training, ultimately these women served as nurses following the retreat of the INA after the disastrous siege of Imphal.

MUMBAI: Star Plus will be airing a special episode of Satyamev Jayate on Independence Day titled ?Satyamev Jayate ka Safar?.

Aamir Khan will return to anchor the episode, which records accounts of how the television series whipped up winds of change over the course of 13 weeks.

?Satyamev Jayate ka Safar? will trace the journey of the 13 episodes, the impact it has had and revisit progress on each of the issues. It will be aired on 15 August at 11 am on Star Plus, Star Pravah, Star World, Star Jalsha and Doordarshan while on Star Vijay, Asianet and ETV it will telecast on 19 August.

Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, "Satyamev Jayate was all about compelling stories that raised the bar for television programming and creating an experience for our viewers. Such content is consistent with the philosophy of our network entertainment that?s also food for thought. A steady stream of forward-looking content on Star is going a long way in making TV as a powerful medium that enables change."

"We will continue to unwaveringly focus on delivering programming that matches people?s expectations from us," he added.

In the episode, Khan will share stories of change from all over the country. He will share India?s response to the various questions posed at the end of each episode with viewers as well as give details of all the donations collected for the various NGOs.

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Taking a leaf from Star Plus, rival Hindi general entertainment channel Zee TV has decided to simulcast the mythological epic ?Ramayan? on pubcaster Doordarshan.

Zee TV will try to exploit the time zone Star Plus had created on Sunday mornings at 11 with its Aamir Khan television debut show ?Satyamev Jayate?. Zee senses an opportunity as Star Plus has just replaced ?Satyamev Jayate? with ?Lakhon Mein EK?, the debut ratings of which will be known next week.

For Doordarshan, the continuity of the Sunday morning content with big properties from the two leading broadcasters stays. After ?Satyamev Jayate? ended its run on 29 July, the pubcaster will get to telecast ?Ramayan? that had created history on its network in the late eighties with an older version from the same producers.

"DD gets to air the prime Sunday morning properties of Star and Zee without playing any role in its conception. For the private broadcasters, the obvious strategy is to aggregate audiences and expand reach for these different kind of shows. This is the first time the mythology will run simultaneously on a private satellite channel and India?s national broadcaster. The airing of Ramayan will be interesting to observe in terms of the impact it leaves behind on the pubcaster," says a media analyst.

?Ramayan? will start on the two channels from 12 August. The new remake of the epic serial is being made by Sagar Arts, the same production house which produced the series on DD and Imagine TV. Ramanand Sagar?s granddaughter Meenakshi is the producer of the show.

Interestingly, this is Zee TV?s second attempt to bring this mythological series to its viewers. Earlier, the channel had aired Ramayan, produced by BR Chopra, in 2002. Forming part of Zee TV?s revamp strategy under the then CEO of the network Sandeep Goyal, the show bombed.

Imagine TV also launched with Ramayan as its flagship property in 2008. But after an initial strong burst, the show petered out and went off air in 2009.

Now ready for its fourth run on Indian television, the ?new? Ramayan will use social networking websites to connect with the younger generation. Needfully so. There is a growing young population in today?s India and audiences are fragmented and segmented with television offering plenty of entertainment choices.

"For the first time, we will see Ramayan tapping social media. Earlier in 2008, this opportunity was not there to connect with the new generation. So let?s see how the younger generation take to a mythology that is so deep rooted in our culture," says Subhajit Das Mohapatra, a researcher in sociology.

When the first serial directed by Ramanand Sagar was telecast on Doordarshan almost three decades ago in 1987, the common man on the street had begun to worship the actors Arun Govil and Deepika as Ram and Sita.

Zee TV has, thus, kept the names of the lead actors under wraps. Explains Ajay Bhalwankar, Head-Content, Hindi GECs at Zee TV, "Viewers should venerate Ram and Sita and not the actors."

In BR Chopra?s Ramayan, Nitish Bharadwaj and Smriti Irani played the roles of Ram and Sita. Imagine TV, on the other hand, had Gurmeet Choudhary and Debina Bonnerjee play the main characters in 2008.

"As these two versions didn?t fare well, the lead actors couldn?t grow into iconic figures. Also, Arun Govil and Deepika were Ram and Sita in a different age of Indian society," says Mohapatra.

Directed by Moti Sagar, the new version will have TV artiste Neil Bhatt play Lakshman?s (Ram?s brother) character, while Rishabh Shukla and Shikha Swaroop will perform the roles of King Dashrath (father of Ram) and Kaikeyi (wife of Dashrath) respectively.

The timeless classic based on ?Tulsidas? Ramcharitmanas? is still relevant in contemporary times and will use newer technology and special effects to provide wholesome entertainment and message to the entire family, right from grandparents to children.

Bhalwankar says there is a sea change in the kind of technology and graphics that are used in the latest version of Ramayan. "The scale is going to be really huge and state-of-the-art this time. It has been shot in HD," he adds.

The language has been simplified so that today?s generation is able to understand and learn from it.

"The story will be similar to what my grandfather had shown. Nothing new can be included in the story, but the presentation will definitely be different. The technology is much better today and we have worked on a lot of details of the characters,? says Meenakshi.