Katha Sagar was a popular television series which was directed by renowned filmmaker Shyam Benegal and on Doordarshan DD National in 1986. It was the only single TV series that brought together the most celebrated talents in acting, direction, writing, and music. The series was a collection of stories by world famous authors such as Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, H. H. Munro, O. Henry, Anton Chekhov, Guy De Maupassant and Anton Chekov, Leo Tolstoy, etc.
The series helped Shyam Bengal to fulfill his dream of direction evergreen Waheeda Rehman in a lead character of a series. Waheeda had acted in a story based on Guy de Maupassant's short stories. She played a lonely Christian woman of Goa. She was perfect in that role. Besides Waheeda, Veteran actresses such as Sharmila Tagore and Moushumi Chatterjee along with Om Puri, Saeed Jaffrey, Shammi Kapoor, Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutt, Marc Zuber, Pallavi Joshi, Supriya Pathak, Bindu, Parikshit Sahni, Rohini Hattangadi, Suresh Oberoi, and Kitu Gidwani etc, too appeared in some episodes of the serial. The series included about 37 episodes which featured each story of veteran writers. The series was a bridge across time and minds.
The series was well presented, with good acting, smooth direction and an overall a brilliant performances from all Bollywood actors who acted in this series. It provided an idea how international author’s works can be adapted to fit an Indian context. The adaptation even kept the essence of original story very well. It may be noted that Shyam Benegal and other renowned directors such as Anil Ganguly, Satyen Bose, Ved Rahi, Kundan Shah, Ramesh Gupta, Krishan Sethi had adapted the works of internationally renowned authors which were not seen before in the language of celluloid.
Due to the efficient direction and the most celebrated talents in acting had come together to showcase a masterpiece TV show, the show had reached viewership rating of 85.1 percent. It was the most successful journey of Shyam Benegal and his associate directors in the small screen.