Mahabharat
For many people, the childhood was incomplete without the iconic like Mahabharat and Ramayana. We would sit at home with a pin drop silence to watch the Indian Mythological series. Our Sunday morning begin with the mega mythological saga – Mahabharata. People were addicted to viewing the TV show religiously and the producer of the show BR Chopra monopolized its presence on the Doordarshan all over the country. The first episode of Mahabharat was featured on Doordarshan back in 1988, 32 years ago. It is one of the most triumphant show in the history of Indian television. Most of our Sunday mornings begin with the Indian mythology.
Luckily, the very prominent Indian Series has knocked our doors again courtesy this lockdown phase. The most desired India TV Series, Mahabharat has made a returned back on Doordarshan. And even today it has hooked the audience and has left a huge impact on the new generation. Read on these unknown facts about Mahabharat:
Juhi Chawla was originally shortlisted for the role of Draupadi, but later she opted out after bagging the lead role in Qayamat se Qayamat Tak. Then, Rupa Ganguly was cast as Draupadi in the end.
Mukesh Khanna was offered the role of Duryodhan but he refused to play a negative role. He then auditioned for the character of Arjun and Karna but didn’t get the roles. Later he was offered the role of Dronacharya and was also a part of Muhurat but eventually BR Chopra asked him to play the role of Bhishma.
The role of Bhima in the show was played by Parveen Kumar who was an Indian athlete. He saw the advertisement in a newspaper for casting in the mythological series and applied for the same. He was also a participant in Olympics and won many medals.
Krishna
Nitish Bhardwaj who portrayed the role of Krishna was apprehensive to play the character of Krishna as he was apprehensive that he was not qualified for this opportunity. He was interested in essaying the role of Abhimanyu.
The casting of Lord Krishna was difficult; it took around 55 screen tests and after that Nitish Bhardwaj was finalized for the role as Ravi Chopra felt his smile was captivating and divine
Gufi Paintal was the casting director of the series Mahabharat and also played the character of Shakuni mama. He also directed few episodes of the epic. He took almost 8 months to examine all the videos and checked Hindi diction of the actors to conclude different characters.
The character of Nakul and Sahdev was played by real life twin brothers Sameer Chitre and Sanjeev Chitre.
Nitish Bharadwaj, who played the role of Shri Krishna, was respected by people in real life. There are examples where people have touched his feet assuming he is Lord Krishna!
The role of Karna was played by Pankaj Dheer was injured several times and was nearly killed during the Kurushetra war shooting. He had to undergo a surgery as well when an arrow hit him close to his eye. His chariot was even broken once during the shoot.
During the sequence of Draupadi Vastraharan 250-meter long saree was used. Whereas, Roopa Ganguly wore only 6 meters long saree.
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