Discovery Channel cracks The Da Vinci Code

Media release, May 20, 2005

New Delhi

From New York to New Delhi, one book has the whole world talking, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. More than fifteen million copies of the book, translated into 30 languages, have already been sold. The book suggests that Jesus Christ had a child with Mary Magdalene and this child’s descendants have survived, creating a bloodline that can be traced down the centuries and which continues to this day. Is this true?

Discovery Channel will put this conspiracy theory to test in its premiere programme – The Da Vinci Code: Cracked. Using dramatic reconstructions, symbology, genealogy, cryptography, experiments, historical evidence and experts’ opinions, the programme analyses the four premises of this theory - Did Jesus Christ have a child with Mary Magdalene? Did Leonardo Da Vinci encode this secret in his paintings? Do Christ’s descendants walk among us? And does the Holy Grail exist?

The Da Vinci Code: Cracked, a part of the on-going series Conspiracies on Trial, will air on Discovery Channel on May 21st and May 28th at 9 pm.

Raja Balasubramanian, Brand Director, Discovery Networks India said, “Millions of readers across the world had one question after reading the book - is the book fact or fiction? The Da Vinci Code: Cracked examines the story behind the Da Vinci Code.”

The theory…

The theory’s basic claim is that Jesus Christ, far from being the celibate and divine messiah learned about in church was in fact all too human. In the face of everything, he had a child. Even more shocking, that child’s mother was none other than the woman derided by the disciples, Mary Magdalene. From this child, Christ’s descendants have survived throughout history, a royal bloodline that can be traced down the centuries and which continues to this day. A bloodline that is the true nature of the holy grail, mistakenly identified as the cup that held Christ’s blood.

Any proof of this bloodline would drastically undermine the idea of Christ’s divinity. So when in the 11th century the group of warrior monks called the Knights Templar discovered documents that proved the existence of the grail, the Catholic church acted quickly, rounded them up and had them executed. The bloodline was forced underground, the grail hidden. The documents that Templars had discovered, however, did not disappear with them. It is claimed that they were hidden in France, protected by a secret society called the Priory of Sion whose grand marshals include some of history’s greatest figures - Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci.

For further information, please contact:

Rajiv Bakshi

Manager – Corporate Communications

Discovery Networks India

Tel: 011- 51491164; 98109-99796