AMOL RAJAN TRAVELS THE GANGES FOR BBC ONE SPECIAL

BBC Factual has commissioned leading Bristol-based specialist factual production company Wildstar Films (a Fremantle Media company) to produce Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges (working title), a one-hour documentary special for BBC One and iPlayer exploring the biggest gathering on Earth – the Maha Kumbh Mela Festival in Northern India.

Journalist and presenter Amol Rajan joins up to 500 million pilgrims from all over the globe who come together for the world’s largest religious festival. The festival, which takes place every 12 years, is the largest in human history, and this year's Kumbh is a once in a lifetime event, due to a special alignment of the planets in the solar system, which last occurred 144 years ago.

Pilgrims numbering more than the combined populations of the US and UK gather in an area the size of Manhattan, at the confluence of three sacred rivers, to purify themselves in the waters and gain salvation for themselves and their families.

This is a profoundly personal journey for Amol, who was born in India to a practising Hindu family. Amol has struggled to come to terms with the death of his father three years ago and hopes that reconnecting with his birthplace, at one of Hinduism's most important religious events, could help him process his grief.

Along the way, Amol meets pilgrims spread out across 20 square miles of the temporary megacity, erected in just a few weeks on the banks of the rivers. Those gathered range from smartphone-wielding urbanites to rural farming families, together with mystics and holy men, prophets and warrior monks, as they wait their turn to immerse themselves in the sacred waters.

But attending the largest gathering of people in history is not without risks and Amol comes face to face with the tragic side of pilgrimage. On the most auspicious bathing day an estimated 60 million people arrive at the festival and there is a dangerous stampede that leads to at least 30 dying and more injured.

Amol must abandon his plans as surging crowds cause chaos and confusion. While the authorities race to keep the festival going safely, he must navigate his own feelings towards the tragedy and assess whether to make it to the river at all.

Amol Rajan said: “This journey is both a monumental privilege, and an invitation to understand one of the most beautiful, complex, and profound religions and civilisations our world has ever known. It also comes - as viewers will discover - at a vital moment for me. Truly, this is the most auspicious adventure I have ever been on. Me and 500 million fellow pilgrims, that is…”

Daisy Scalchi, BBC Head of Religion and Ethics for Television said: "This pilgrimage is an immensely personal one for Amol and will bring another side of the presenter to audiences as he takes us inside one of the world’s most extraordinary religious events”

Anwar Mamon, Executive Producer and Director of Development at Wildstar Films added: “Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges (w/t) will immerse viewers in a spectacular assault on the senses provided by the most monumental human gathering in Earth’s history. Exploring both the sacred and the surreal, along with the feats of construction and organisation involved in building and running a temporary mega-city on a flood plain to house 500 million people, the film will also investigate why in an increasingly secular world the promise of spiritual salvation holds such sway.”

Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges (w/t) is a Wildstar Films production for BBC One and iPlayer.