The Hindu Business Line : A lost and found tale

With rare and archival footage, Discovery Channel captures three generations of the Patiala family who wore the famed Patiala necklace presented to the royal family by the fashion house of Cartier over six decades ago.

Royalty and the royal ways do not cease to fascinate. Be it the 18th birthday of the Young Prince William or the triumphs on the battlefield, viewer interest is definitely high. And capitalising on this curiosity factor, Discovery Channel has created a special show on the Patiala Necklace, an exquisite creation by designer jewellery house, Cartier.

The story of the necklace is quite fascinating — a lost and found tale of sorts. It was created in 1928 by the French House, Cartier, for Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. Tipped as one of the most expensive pieces of jewellery ever made, this necklace has been famous for its unmatched brilliance and extraordinary design. The necklace is made up of five rows of diamond encrusted platinum chains with 2,930 diamonds embedded in it, including the world's seventh largest DeBeers diamond.

Cartier took almost three years to create the masterpiece and, before handing it over to the Maharaja, sought permission to display it. But alas, the necklace remained with the Patiala house for less than two decades and in April 1948, the $25-million piece disappeared from the treasury. It resurfaced in London almost half-a-century later when Eric Nussbaum, a Cartier representative in London found it. Cartier immediately bought it and set about restoring the Art Deco period piece to its original glory.

The film, produced by Françoise Gazio of France details the restoration work as the necklace that was found had been ripped of its precision stones. What was left were just the chains and some original stones. The Burmese rubies and the real De Beers diamond that made the necklace rare and exquisite were all gone. Cartier has tried to recreate the necklace using traditional techniques and by replacing the original stones.

The Discovery Channel has used rare, archival footage and captures three generations of the royal family of Patiala, from Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, his son Yadavindra Singh, to Captain Amarinder Singh, the present Chief Minister of Punjab.

According to the channel's Managing Director, Deepak Shourie, this is a tale of history, romance and culture. Shows like these will strengthen the channel's India focus and is part of the Discover India series.

In preparation mode

Cricket and elections are likely to dominate the television channels in the forthcoming months. With the Government giving the green signal to the tour of India to Pakistan next month, all eyes are likely to be tuned to the cricket fields of Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore.

And the Dubai-based Ten Sports is likely to emerge as the winner for the telecasting rights. The channel has already tied up deals of over Rs 200 crore and viewership is expected to go through the roof.

With the nation gearing up for polls, news channels are doing the same. And the churning in the television news business has already started. Well-known Hindi TV anchor, Vinod Dua is believed to have revived his alliance with Prannoy Roy and will be working with NDTV India (the Hindi news channel) this general elections.

Others too seem to be in preparation mode. Aaj Tak's news director, Uday Shankar, will replace Sanjay Pugalia on Star News. Some other senior level changes are expected in the news channel.

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