NEW DELHI: Living up to its theme of being the cultural channel of Doordarshan, DD Bharati will bring live coverage of the Maha Kumbh Mela from Allahabad on 14 January from 8.30 am on the occasion of Makar Sakranti.

DD Bharati will also telecast live the Sabarimala Sannidhanam, Kerala, Makaravilakku on the same day from 3 pm to 5 pm.

The Mukteshwar Dance Festival will be telecast live from Bhubaneshwar in Odisha from 14 to 16 January, followed by the Rajrani Music Festival live from Bhubaneshwar from 18 to 20 January.

The birth anniversary function of Guru Gobind Singh will be telecast live from Takth Sri Hari mandir Ji Patna Saheb in Patna (Bihar) on 18 January from 9 am to 12.30 pm.

Apart from these live programmes, DD Bharati will telecast a Special Programme on Makar Sankranti from Ahmedabad on 14 January at 5 pm.

DD Bharati commemorates the Republic of India with the series ?Azadi? depicting the freedom struggle through old films and paintings from 14 to 19 January at 10 pm.

A special documentary on the "Maha Kumbha - In Search of the Nectar" will be telecast on 14 January at 5.30 pm, and will be repeated on 20 January at 4.30 pm.

A Special Report on Rajgir Mahotsav, Nalanda, will be telecast on 17 January at 8 pm.

?Rhythms of Goa? on Goa?s Folk Festival will be telecast on 20 January at 6 pm.

As part of its ongoing series on tribute to Indian cinema on its centenary, "Cinema 100", DD Bharati will also laud the works of some eminent filmmakers during the coming days. All the programmes will be telecast from Monday to Saturday at 10.30 pm.

The work of cinematographer-turned-filmmaker Govind Nihalani will be featured on 14 January followed on the next day by lyricist and director Gulzar.

The evergreen legend Dev Anand who was among the many film luminaries that passed away during 2012 will be featured on 16 January. The work of the versatile Naseeruddin Shah will be profiled on 17 January.

Dadasaheb Phalke recipient Asha Bhonsle will be paid a tribute on 18 January. Padma Vibhushan recipient Adoor Gopalakrishnan from Kerala will be featured on 19 January.

Meanwhile, Doordarshan will this weekend telecast its special new year?s eve programme ?Dhoom 2013?, a tribute to one hundred years of Indian cinema, which had been cancelled on 31 December night to pay its tribute to the 16 December Delhi gang rape victim.

The programme aimed at felicitating the vamps of yesteryears - Bindu, Helen, Aruna Irani, Jayashree T, Padma Khanna and others - will now be telecast from 8.30 pm to 11.30 pm on 13 January.

Dhoom 2013 has been conceived and designed by the Additional Director General of Mumbai Doordarshan, Mukesh Sharma.

MUMBAI: Doordarshan will telecast Gora, based on a novel by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, from 29 October at 9.30 pm.

The 26 episode series will be shown every Monday and Tuesday at 9.30 pm.

The channel said that the launch of this serial is a step towards the revival and rejuvenation of Doordarshan.

Produced by the filmmaker, curator, distributor, exhibitor and producer Gargi Sen, the series has been directed by Somnath Sen who is known for his work in cinema. It has been filmed by B Chaki and scripted by Sreejaya Radhakrishnan, while the music has been composed by Dabbu and Sanjoy using Tagore?s music of that period as reference and also sourced from Tagore?s own inspiration, the Baul music of Bengal. Suchismita Dasgupta as the stylist has created the period of the 1880s in which the story is set.

The channel said, "The true definition of a classic is its timelessness. A work of literature written a century earlier is a classic if it is as relevant today as it was when it was first conceived. Perhaps that is what differentiates first Asian Nobel Laureate and eminent author Rabindranath Tagore from his contemporaries: almost everything he wrote in his lifetime is as relevant to the India of today as it was to the India of the colonial era. Tagore?s second novel ?Gora? ? arguably one of his best - deals with the debate between modernity and tradition with arguments both for and against traditionally accepted norms."