EXCLUSIVEChannel 4 will give you the Take Backtreatment to the 1947 partition of India with a colorized documentary telling the story of the bitter personal rivalry between Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Britain’s Lord Mountbatten.
India 1947: Partition in ColourOptomen, All3Media-backed Optomen, is the latest to adopt historical colorization. Peter Jackson oversaw the process for Disney+ Beatles doc. Take BackBBC Two World War One feature They Will Not Get Old. Channel 4 and Channel 4 were embraced Auschwitz Untold: In Colour.
The two-parter follows the extraordinary events that unfolded from 1946 in the context of a rumored affair between Nehru and Mountbatten’s wife Edwina Mountbatten, along with the growing enmity between Mountbatten and Muslim League Leader Jinnah while the partition negotiations were taking place.
Cyril Radcliffe was then assigned the task of creating an Indian-Pakistan border. The doc has access both to his private unpublished memoir as well as reams archive footage and interviews from Mountbatten experts and historians.
The Crownfans will be familiar with Mountbatten, a close confidante of Prince Charles’s who was portrayed in several episodes of the Netflix anthology by Charles Dance.
Channel 4 Head of Specialist Factual Shaminder Naal appointed India 1947: Partition in ColourAnd that it will. “bring to life one of the most tumultuous events of the 20th century for a new audience.”
“With the help of historians and relatives of some key players, the films examine the decisions taken by the main protagonists and the terrible events that followed,”She continued. “As the contributors grippingly convey, it’s history that shudders with resonance for today”.
Nick Hornby, Optomen executive, added: “Our hope is to bring the story of Partition to life for a new generation and shed new light on the how the personalities involved helped shape one of the most shocking chapters in the history of the British Empire”.
Hornby is executive producing, Laura Nash series director, and Alice Fraser producer.