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Mahabharat: 10 Interesting facts about the iconic show that will leave you intrigued
Mahabharat Interesting facts: As Mahabharat has returned to our television screens after around three decades, here are some interesting facts about the legendary show which you might not be aware of.
This ongoing Coronavirus lockdown, which has now been extended till May 3, 2020, has got us holed up in our houses to keep COVID 19 at bay. While social distancing is the only way to stay safe in this crisis situation, many of us have been cribbing about missing our social life. In this grave situation, the showbiz industry took a big step to entertain the audience during the lockdown and has been re-telecasting the iconic shows. Yes! Many legendary shows of the 80s and 90s era have made a comeback on our television screens and the audience can’t keep calm.
Amid these, B R Chopra’s Mahabharat is also been telecasted on Indian television. The show has made a comeback after around 32 years and is currently one of the most watched shows on Doordarshan. This iconic show is based on Mahabharat written by Ved Vyas and garnered massive popularity during its first telecast with record-breaking TRP numbers. To note, Mahabharat, which was first aired on October 2, 1988, came with 94 episodes and had its last episode aired on June 24, 1990.
While we are cherishing the re-telecast of this iconic show, here are some of the interesting facts about Mahabharat:
1. We all remember ‘Samay’ from Mahabharat. This iconic narrator plays a key role in the narration of this epic. Interestingly, director B R Chopra was planning to rope in Dilip Kumar and NT Rama Rao as a narrator of the show. However, it was Dr Rahi Masoom Raza who convinced him to have ‘Samay’ aka time as the narrator.
2. Juhi Chawla was the first choice to play the role of Draupadi in the show. However, she walked out of Mahabharat after she was roped in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. Later, the role went to Roopa Ganguly.
3. Nitish Bhardwaj, who played the role of Krishna in Mahabharat, was also not the first choice for the role. In fact, 55 screen tests were conducted and several actors including Gajendra Chouhan and Rishabh Shukla were also considered for the role of Krishna. However, co-director Ravi Chopra opined that Nitish’s smile suited for the role. Notably, Nitish was initially interested in playing the role of Abhimanyu.
4. Interestingly, Mukesh Khanna, who won hearts with his performance as Bhishma, was initially offered the role of Duryodhan. However, turned down the offer as he was interested in playing the role of Arjun or Karna. He was even considered for the role of Dronocharya but then was finalised as Bhishma.
5. Gufi Paintal, who was the casting director of the show, took eight months to finalise different characters of Mahabharat with numerous video testing and checking the Hindi diction of the applicants. Interestingly, he was seen playing the role of Shakuni in the iconic show.
6. Govinda and Chunky Pandey were considered for the role of Abhimanyu in Mahabharat. However, both the stars opted out due to their professional commitments and later Master Mayur was roped in as Abhimanyu.
7. Before Firoz Khan was finalised for the role of Arjun in the show, Jackie Shroff was being considered for the role. But destiny had its own plans. Interestingly, Firoz even adopted his screen name of Arjun post the show.
8. Pankaj Dheer, who played the role of Karna in the show, had several near death experience while shooting for the war sequences. While the chariot he was riding once broke down mid-way during the shoot, he was also hit by an arrow close to his eyes and even had to undergo a surgery for the same.
9. Sameer Chitre and Sanjeev Chitre, who played the role of Nakul and Sahadeva in Mahabharata, were brothers in real life as well.
10. All the actors in Mahabharat were newcomers except Raj Babbar and Debashree Roy who played the roles of Bharat and Shantanu’s second wife Satyawati.
