With the re telecast of the historical and epic serial Mahabharata with millions of viewers glued to the television screens, some not so known but important facts about the serial have emerged. This serial was rated an 8.9/10 on IMDB and in terms of popularity for the TV Series category is considered a gold standard. This serial was based on the epic of the same name written by Ved Vyas. Its TV adaptation was directed by Ravi Chopra and produced by B.R Chopra. This year in October it will complete 32 years on Doordarshan. It was first telecast on 2nd October 1988 and ran for 2 years adding a significant milestone in the acting careers of Roopa Ganguly, Mukesh Khanna and Nitish Bhardawaj among many others in the serial.
It is said that actor Juhi Chawla was offered the role of Draupadi which she declined and chose to debut instead with “Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.”
In an interview Mukesh Khanna had mentioned that he was inclined towards playing Arjun but got the role of Bhishma Pitamah instead.
It is said that Nitish Bhardawaj avoided BR Chopra’s call because he wanted to bag the role of Abhimanyu but got the offer to play Krishna instead which later on proved to be s game changer for him and he saw an immense rise in his popularity as an actor.
The role of Nakul and Sahdeva played by Sameer and Sanjeev Chitre was actually enacted by real brothers.
During one of the exotic war sequences actor Pankaj Dheer met with a serious accident which required surgery.
The script was penned by famous lyricist and poet Masoom Raza.
Co actor Firoz Khan had complained to Producer BR Chopra that Mukesh Khanna has got more lines than him.
In what may have been a conflict of TRP’s both Ramayana and Mahabharata were slated to be telecast during the same period but Mahabharata got shifted to later.
