Weekend

With Lock down going in full swing, people are watching TV, watching  Netflix, Amazon Prime video and many other apps to kill their time. As stepping out of the home is not possible so they are not left with any other choice for passing their spare time. Many of you must have noticed that many regular TV channels have started telecasting old serials, and first one to take the lead was Doordarshan, who started telecasting  their most popular serials Ramayan and Mahabharat. Many of you must have seen the frenzy when these two serials were telecast during 1980s. It first started with Ramayan, most of us who have not read Ramayan till that time, learnt about this epic through this serial which was Produced and Directed by Ramanand Sagar.

Then came Mahabharat which was telecast during 1988-89, and within few weeks every Indian was watching this serial. This serial have broken record of viewership, that time there was no concept of TRPs otherwise its record could never be beaten even in the present times. Mahabharat used to be telecast on Sunday morning, and it was fact that during the time of telecast the roads used to be deserted with everyone glued to their TV sets. There use to be no program/functions arranged for Sunday morning and everything used to happen post Mahabharat’s telecast. There was a joke circulating those days that if Pakistan wants to attack India, then they should do it on Sunday morning when even soldiers who have access to TV are watching Mahabharat, but reality was that even most of Pakistanis who could catch DD used to watch this serial also, and after the serial was over the video cassettes of this serial were sold like hot cakes in Pakistan also.

Now why Mahabharat became more popular than Ramayan,  because Ramayan was a straight forward story of King Dashrath and his four sons, Ram, Laxman, Bharat & Shatrughan, and in this story characters were either good or evil and story moved in the direction of victory of good over evil. While Mahabharat is a complex epic, and here characters are not good or evil,  most of them are in grey zone and most of the times everything happening was having a political virtue, the events happening  could be related to events of present times. Mahabharat had more character then Ramayan and the icing on the cake was that it contained Bhagwat Geeta, where Lord Krishna’s gives gyan (teaching of life) to Arjun just before the start of Krukshetra war. Bhagwat Geeta till date is considered as most sacred book among Hindus. Even in Courts Hindus are asked to  take oath that they will speak nothing but the truth, while touching Bhagwat Geeta. You must have seen  this dialogue in many films “ Main Geeta Ki Kasam Khata Hoon Ki Main Jo Kahunga Sach Kahoonga Aur Sach ke Siva Kuch Nahin Kahoonga”.

Now let me describe some known/unknown facts of Mahabharat Serial :

• This serial was Produced and Directed and father and son duo BR Chopra and Ravi Chopra.
• Earlier BR Chopra wanted to make film on Mahabharat, but always thought a 3 hour film can not give justice to such a vast epic. When Ramayan becomes successful, he started finalising the concept of Mahabharat as serial.
• The serial was based on Ved Vyas epic of the same name, and you will be surprise to know that its screenplay and dialogue was written by a Muslim writer Dr Rahi Masoom Reza.
• The first episode of the serial was telecast on the Doordarshan network on 2^nd Oct 1988 and last was on 24^th June 1990.
• There were total 94 episodes.
• The serial was shot in Film City in Mumbai. The Krukshetra war scene were shot near Jaipur.
• The crown which was worn by most of the male characters in the serial weighed almost 2 Kg.
• Almost 15,000 artists approached the casting director of the serial for the various roles, among them 1500 artists were shortlisted for various roles.
• Juhi Chawla who started her career in 85/86 was initially finalised for the role of Drupadi, but before the shooting could commence she opted out, as she was selected for heroine’s role in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. Later Rupa Ganguly was finalised for this role.
• For the role of Abhimanyu, Govinda and Chunky Pandey were short listed, but they also opted out because of their film career.
• Mukesh Khanna who played the character of Bhisham Pitamah, was first offered the role of Duryodhan, but he never wanted to do negative role. He then auditioned for the role of Arjun and Karan, but was rejected. In the end he was auditioned and selected for the role of Bhisham Pitamah.
• For the role of Arjun, even Jackie Shroff was considered, but eventually a small time actor Feroze Khan landed this role, although during audition he was rejected. Later he changed his screen name to Arjun only.
• For Draupadi Cheerharan scene, a special 250 meter long Saree was made, although Rupa Ganguly wore 6 meters long saree, but to create special affects this 250 long Saree was used.
• Only established stars who acted in this serial were Raj Babbar as King Bharat, and Debashri Roy as 2^nd wife of King Shantanu. Their roles were quite short.
• The total production cost of filming 94 episodes was Rs 9 Crore that time.
• It has been said that DD earned about 65 Cr from the advertisements, which were telecast during the breaks.
• Initially the 10 second ad used to cost Rs 65,000, which at the later stages were increased to Rs 1 lakh. While the max advertising rate during Ramayan was Rs 70,000 for 10 seconds.
• The actors who played important roles in the serial were earning Rs 10,000 to 15,000 per episode.

While Ramayan gave popularity to the artists who portrayed Ram, Seeta, Laxman and Hanuman. But in case of Mahabharat all the artists who played important roles became very famous. On top of the list were Mukesh Khanna (Bheesham Pitamah) Rupa Ganguly (Draupati), Girija Shankar (Dhrithrashtra), Punnet Issar (Duryodhan), Nazneen (Kunti), Pankaj Dheer (Karan), Parveen kumar (Bheem), Arjun (Arjun), Gajendra Chauhan (Yudhishtir) and many more.

Friends, Hope you must have enjoyed this blog on Mahabharat.

Awaiting your feed backs/views/comments

Anil Malik

Mumabi, India

22^nd May 2020