NEW DELHI: For the first time in its history, Zee TV has commenced telecast of a series which is being shown on five of its channels of which two are beamed overseas.

The 26-episode 'Wheel of Life' talk show is based on the book of that name by senior Uttar Pradesh Indian Administrative Service officer R K Singh.

The half-hour programme has been conceived by Sonorous Knowledge Trust and Shirdi Sai Baba Foundation headed by entrepreneur and TV personality Aushim Khetrapal.

It is being beamed at 6.30 am on Sundays on Zee News, 8.30 am on Saturdays on Zee Business, 1.30 am on Saturdays on Zee UP, and on Zee American and Zee Dubai on their general entertainment channels at 8.00 am on Friday and Sunday mornings.

With the theme song and music by Shankar Mahadevan, the series is anchored by Amrita Raichand.

Cosmology, genetics and quantum physics, and knowledge of spirituality are the base of the show, which Singh said at a press meet, has been inspired by the Upanishads and also the religious texts of all religions. However, he stressed that it was not a programme about religion or spirituality and was based more on understanding the value of life.

Answering a question, he said the Big Bang theory which was referred to in the series was not something that had come from the west, but had been talked of by Indian sages even up to the eleventh century.

Khetrapal told indiantelevision.com that the series was presently sponsored by Natural Essence among others and had reached a TRP of 0.4 in the third episode on Zee Business.

He said he had conceived the series around three years earlier when he had met Singh in UP, but the latter had to get permission from the state government for appearing on television.

Singh said he had begun by scribbling some notings based on his reading of the Upanishads in 1996 and it was only in 1999 that he began writing the book, which was published in the United States in 2005.

He had attempted to show in the series that humans were only seized with a contemporary attitude to life and were like automatons, whereas the purpose of human life was much deeper and it was necessary to understand this.

Referring to marketing of the show, Khetrapal said it was clearly not the kind of show that would pick up through promos and therefore the social media and word of mouth publicity was the best way to spread the message. But he said that several thousand calls were received almost on a daily basis. Around 25,000 mails had been received by each of the five channels.

Later, pamphlets and e-mailers would be sent and road shows held to popularise the show, he added.