MUMBAI: Niche infotainment network Discovery channel has launched Discover India, a new series which will showcase modern and contemporary India.
 
 
The series will present a glimpse of India that goes beyond the clich'd images of temples, holy men and the Taj Mahal. It airs every Saturday at 9:00 pm, with a repeat telecast on Sunday at 9:00 am.

18 films made by world-renowned producers will be showcased in April, May and June, states a release.

Some of the programs featured in Discover India are:

Great Cats of India wherein India's leading wildlife cameraman Alphonse Roy uses his experience and expertise to capture definitive documentary portraits of India's great cats - the lion, tiger, leopard and the majestic snow leopard. This programme will show the snow leopard for the first time on film.

Himalayas - Descending India captures the world class skiers in Himachal Pradesh revealing some of the most extreme skiing on the planet.

Arthur C Clark's Mysterious India explores unexplained phenomenon like a few men who lift a large stone ball at Shivpuri using only their fingertips, the centuries-old iron of the Ashoka Pillar in Delhi that has never rusted and the body of St. Francis Xavier which has not decayed for centuries.

Konarak - Chariot of the Sun directed and narrated by Shyam Benegal, examines the possible reasons for the construction of Konarak, the largest and the most elaborately carved of all sun temples.

In the Wild and Dangerous, the Kaziranga National Park director PS Das shows what life is really like for the forest guards who slug it out on the frontline of conversation .

Buddha's Mountain Wilderness, filmed in the Indian Himalayan areas of Kinnaur and Spiti takes the viewers to a number of great cultural edifices, Buddhist rituals and customs, which are no longer found anywhere in the world.