Pratap Rughani reflects on the attempts at reconciliation in Australia and South Africa through the experience of filming with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
Read The Pardoners’ Tale
“The Pardoners’ Tale”
Author: Lotus Films
New Model Army
Eighteen months following the experiences of Black and Asian recruits to the British Army, as the racial traditions of centuries are challenged.
Winner of RIMA award TV Factual category, (2001) and shortlisted for the Grierson Social Documentary Award. 
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“This modern morality tale makes for uncomfortable but compelling viewing”
TV Times
Director Pratap Rughani
Series Producer Roger Mills Umbrella Pictures for C4.
“Aside from providing a rare insight into the peculiarly old-fashioned world of the British military, this documentary is actually rather moving” The Observer
“One of the documentary’s many merits, like the rest of the series, contained that vital ingredient, balance. Taking pot shots at great institutions such as the Army is easy, but this series has avoided that trap and instead taken pains to explore the bewildering maze that the Forces find themselves in… at the sublime end of last night’s viewing”.
The Daily Telegraph
The Guardian article on ‘New Model Army’ Documentary Race against time by Chris Arnott and David Brindle (9 August 2000)
“For the conscientious objector, it is better to die, than to kill”
Articles
The Dalai Lama’s practical guide to happiness, by Pratap Rughani
The Buddhist path to enlightenment and peace is attractive to thousands in Britain
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4034921.ece
Born again in the light of Buddha, by Pratap Rughani
India’s Untouchables are finding new hope by converting to Buddhism
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article1294584.ece
Reviews
The struggle to keep justice in focus by Pratap Rughani, on Taking Liberties, The Independent MEDIA edited by Maggie Brown
Taking Liberties, Limited Edition, by Compton Miller review
Race against time by Chris Arnot, The Guardian review of New Model Army
Islam and Intellect The Listener
An Indian Affair
An Indian Affair reveals the hidden story of Britain’s relationship with India. Historian Maria Misra presents the remarkable tale of an affair that began with lust and matured into mutual respect, even love, until a new British desire to dominate locked the partners into an unequal and abusive marriage – the Raj.
Pratap Rughani co-directed Programme 2 Brief Encounter.
A Takeaway Media production for Channel 4 TV, 2001.
PROGRAMME 2 BRIEF ENCOUNTER. SYNOPSIS
They came as traders and left as rulers, but in between stands the biggest turnabout in the story of Britain and India; for a brief flicker of time the relationship confounded the stereotypes – a fusion culture was born.
PART 2
Back in England, Indo-mania took root. Indian clothes, fashion, music, literature and food… even bathing habits came under an Indian spell. The Prince Regent crowned it all with his Indian folly – the Brighton Pavilion. We chart the Indianisation of England, on a journey with the eighteenth century traveller and celebrity Abu Talib Khan.
We get the documentary we deserve
Planet Ustinov
“To who it may concern,
I must be mad – at my age – to embark on a journey like this. From Suva to Sydney; from the Kiribati islands to Cape Town (with a few Himalayan foothills in between). Totally mad. A century ago, Mark Twain had done the same – Following the Equator – and now I’m to follow in his faded footsteps. As a happy mongrel – with a British passport, and no British blood – I’m curious to know what makes other people belong; and to see how Twain’s world has changed.
They’ve told me it will be fun, and I believed them.
I must be mad.”
Pratap was Associate Producer of films 2 and 4.
If television is ‘dumbing down’ then no one has told Sir Peter. He remains substantial proof that it isn’t…The film was an antidote to the ‘have celeb will travel’ school of programme-making. Flying in the face of the seemingly widespread belief that travel programmes must be glamour-led, C4’s new four-part series replaced glitz and gloss with girth and gravitas…” James Rampton in The Independent on Sunday 29.11.98.
“This entertaining and illuminating four-parter is definitely a series to follow” The Daily Mail 23.11.98
“The politics is lightly worn, punctuated by the Ustinov repertoire of accents and funny accents, from a taxi horn to Scottish pipes” The Times
Monuments of Dharma
In The India Magazine, Pratap Rughani reviews:
Unseen Presence: The Buddha and Sanchi by V.Dehejia,
Amaravarti: Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stupa by R. Knox
Borobodur, Prayer in Stone by P. Schoppert