With the IMDB rating of 8.9 out of 10, Mahabharat is considered as one of the most popular TV series in India. It is the major reason that people got some sort of addiction to watching TV religiously.
Mahabharat Show is based on the book written by Ved Vyas, which is considered one of the holy books in India. The TV serial was directed by Ravi Chopra and produced by BR Chopra. The first episode of Mahabharat was aired on Doordarshan back in 1988, 32 years ago.
The show was aired in 94 episodes. It used to broadcast on Sunday morning prime time. Ramayan and Mahabharat created an addiction among people as streets used to be empty when the show started on Doordarshan.
As per the facts stated by The Guardian, Mahabharat TV series had attracted up to 5 million viewers on a Saturday afternoon on BBC2.
Keeping the holier than thou attitude, check out some interesting facts about the Mahabharat serial.
#1. A documentary was released titled Mahabharat ki Mahabharat where B.R. Chopra detailed his journey to make this show. A production team member named Kishore Malhotra said that the total cost of production was approx. 9 crore rupees.
#2. The ambitious BR Chopra wanted to have a strong narrator for the Mahabharat. He was considering approaching Dilip Kumar and NT Rama Rao. It was Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza who convinced him to have “Samay” as the narrator of the show.
#3. Little you know that the research team of Mahabharat TV series had gone through all available books in different languages to make is good for everyone. The research team was handled by Satish Bhatnagar.
#4. Dr. Rahi Masoom was very confident about writing Mahabharat because he knew that he can connect well with the past and present of India.
#5. The original storyline submitted by BR Chopra to Doordarshan was long enough with 104 episodes. It was later shortened to 94 episodes.
#6. The show was directed by Ravi Chopra and produced by his father BR Chopra. Dr. Reza said that Ravi has done a better job than his father.
#7. Mahabharat was the big show. There were 15,000 people applied to play character roles in Mahabharat. However, the casting team shortlisted and called about 1500 people for the video screen tests.
#8. Gufi Paintal played the role of Shakuni in the Mahabharat. Little you know that he was also the casting director of the show. It took him almost 8 months to test all the videos and checked Hindi diction to finalize different characters.
#9. It was the fact that most of the cast in Mahabharat was newcomer except Raj Babbar who played the role of King Bharat.
Continue To Next Page…
1 2
Categories: Entertainment, History, Indian Television