Mahabharat | |
---|---|
Genre | Mythology |
Created by | Siddharth Kumar Tewary |
Based on | Mahabharat by Vyasa |
Written by | Sharmin Joseph Radhika Anand Anand Vardhan Mihir Bhuta Siddharth Kumar Tewary |
Directed by | Siddharth Anand Kumar Amarprith G Mukesh Kumar Singh Kamal Monga Loknath Pandey |
Creative director(s) | Amol surve |
Starring | Saurabh Raj Jain Pooja Sharma Shaheer Sheikh Aham Sharma |
Narrated by | Saurabh Raj Jain |
Composer(s) | Ajay-Atul Ismail Darbar |
Country of origin | India |
Original language(s) | Hindi |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 267[1] |
Production | |
Producer(s) | Siddharth Kumar Tewary Gayatri Gil Tewary Rahul Kumar Tewary |
Production location(s) | Umbergaon, Gujarat |
Editor(s) | Paresh Shah |
Camera setup | multi camera |
Production company(s) | Swastik Productions |
Distributor | Star India |
Release | |
Original network | StarPlus |
Picture format | 576i 1080i (HDTV) |
Original release | 22 September 2013 – 16 August 2014 |
External links | |
Website | |
Production website |
Mahabharat is an Indian mythological[2] series based on the ancient Indian Sanskrit epic Mahabharat.[3][4][5][6][7] It aired from 16 September 2013 to 16 August 2014 on Star Plus.
Aug 29, 2012 - Bollywood actor Arjun, who got a fresh lease of life when film-maker B. Chopra cast him in Mahabharat way back in the 1980s, is now.
It was produced by Swastik Productions Pvt. Ltd starring Saurabh Raj Jain as Shri Krishna, Shaheer Sheikh as Arjun, Pooja Sharma as Draupadi, Aham Sharma as Karna, Arav Chowdhary as Bhishma, Arpit Ranka as Duryodhan.
Mahabharat presents the story of the throne of Hastinapur, a kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan where the Kaurav and the Pandav brothers compete to be king. Yudhistir, the eldest Pandav, and Duryodhan, the eldest Kaurav, claim to be first in line to inherit the throne.
Then all of a sudden the bot runs 6 or 7 evens or odds in a row and wipes me out! How can a script do something it's not programmed to do!.? Tick picker v.1 in binary.com. Script says one odd then one even and when it follows this it actually provides pretty good results.
The story begins with Devavrata, a great warrior, who is the son of Shantanu and Ganga and is a disciple of Parshuram. Devavrata earns the name Bhisma by swearing an oath of celibacy in order to fulfill his father’s wish to marry Satyavati. He also vows to remain a servant to the throne of Hastinapur and is granted the boon of ‘icchya-mrityu’ or Wishful Death for his sacrifice. Bhisma, as a result, will not die unless he reaches the point of desiring death.
Thus, Bhisma gives up his rightful throne and Satyavati rules the kingdom as the ‘Rajmaata’ (Mother of the King) after her husband’s death. Her son, Vichitravirya, an alcoholic and heavily dependent on Bhisma, cannot rule the kingdom, leading Satyavati to decide that Vichitravirya’s future son must rule the kingdom. As Vichitravirya is unable to choose a wife for himself, Bhisma must select a wife for him.
The three princesses of the Salva Kingdom, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika are won over by Bhisma who takes them to Hastinapur for marriage. However, Amba had already chosen a groom and demands to be released. She returns to her lover but is spurned for being the rejected wife of another man.
Vichitravirya’s wedding to Ambika and Ambalika takes place. When Amba demands justice, she is given the choice to marry Vichitravirya and become the queen of Hastinapur. Instead, she requests that Bhisma marry her as it was he who won her. However, Bhisma must remain celibate and cannot meet her demand, resulting in Amba’s anger. Therefore, Lord Shiva grants Amba the boon of rebirth with a memory of the past and the fate to cause Bhisma’s death. Reborn as Shikandi in the Panchal Kingdom, she partakes in Bhisma’s death and fulfills the boon.
In Kuntibhoj, Princess Kunti obtains a boon from the sage Durvasa whereby she may invoke any deity and bear his child. Out of curiosity, she tests the boon, calling upon the Sun God and is granted a son named Karna. However, Kunti, as an unmarried woman, sets Karna afloat on the river Ganga to avoid embarrassment. She later marries Pandu and invokes other deities to give her three sons, Yudhistir, Bhim and Arjun. Karna’s true identity is never revealed until the end of the Kurukshetra War. Karna, a skilled archer and belonging to a lower caste, was often mistreated as he was raised by Adirath, a charioteer, and his wife, Radha. Duryodhan, the Pandhavs’ mortal enemy is the only one to ever support Karna and thus, Karna vows to always protect Duryodhan and fights on his behalf during the Kurukshetra War.
Bhisma asks for Gandhari’s hand in marriage for his blind nephew Dhritarashtra, resulting in her brother Shakuni’s fury. However Bhisma persuades him as Dhritrashtra would be the future king of Hastinapur. However, during the coronation ceremony, Dhritrashtra’s younger brother Pandu is crowned king due to the influence of Vidur, another of Dhritrashtra’s younger brother.
Shakuni, feeling cheated, swears to destroy the Kuru race. He poisons the mind of Duryodhan against the Pandavs and sows the seeds for the Kurukshetra War where Shri Krishna imparts the Bhagavad Gita to his Pandav cousin Arjun. The war results in the deaths of many, including Bhisma, Karna and all the sons of Dhritrashtra and Gandhari.
Actor | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|
Saurabh Raj Jain | Krishna/Vishnu | Rukmini’s husband, Pandava's cousin |
Shaheer Sheikh | Arjun | Third Pandav, Son of Indra and Kunti, husband of Draupadi, Subhadra, Uloopi and Chitrangadha |
Aham Sharma | Karna | Sacrificed son of Kunti and Surya, elder brother of Pandavas, King of Anga, Duryodhana's friend and Vrushali's husband. |
Pooja Sharma | Draupadi | Common wife of the Pandas, princess of Panchala and daughter of king Drupada |
Aarav Chowdhary | Bhishma | Shantanu and Ganga’s son. Grandsire of Pandavas and Kauravas. |
Arpit Ranka | Duryodhan | Eldest Kaurav, Bhanumati's husband and Karna's friend |
Praneet Bhat | Shakuni | Gandhari’s brother and King of Gandhara. |
Rohit Bharadwaj | Yudhisthir | First Pandav, Son of Kunti and Dharma. Husband of Draupadi and Devika |
Saurav Gurjar | Bheem | Second Pandav, Son of Kunti and Vayu, husband of Draupadi, Hiring a and Valanthara. |
Vin Rana | Nakul | Fourth Pandav, Son of Madri and Ashwini Kumar, husband of Draupadi and Karenumati |
Lavanya Bhardwaj | Sahadeva | Fifth Pandav, Son of Madri and Ashwini Kumar, husband of Draupadi and Vijaya. |
Nirbhay Wadhwa | Dushasan | Duryodhan’s brother, 2nd Kaurava. |
Thakur Anoop Singh | Dhritarashtra | Ghandhari’s husband, father of the Kaurav's and King of Hastinapur. |
Riya Deepsi | Gandhari | Dhritarashtra’s wife, Shakuni's sister and mother of the Kauravas. |
Shafaq Naaz | Kunti | Pandu’s wife, mother of Pandavas and Karna. |
Star spent ₹100 crore (US$14 million) on the project and spent another ₹20 crore (US$2.9 million) on marketing the show, making it India's most expensive TV series of its time. Its record of being India's most expensive TV show was later broken by Swastik Pictures' Porus.[8]
According to producer Siddharth Kumar Tewary, the Draupadi cheer haran (disrobing) sequence,[9] which Tewary himself directed, took 20 days to shoot.[10]
Writing for Rediff, Nishi Tiwari wrote that 'If it maintains the quality of writing and able actors who portray key characters, we may have another winner among us'.[11] DNA praised the costumes, scenery, Krishna's flute theme which was given by Raj Mohan Sinha,[12] and most of the CGI special effects, but said the story pace was too fast.[13]
It won the trophy for the Best Drama in Star Guild Awards 2013 as well as number of accolades in other award shows.[14] It won the Indian Telly Awards for Actor in a Supporting Role (Drama), given to Aham Sharma for his portrayal as Karna, and Actor in a Negative Role to Praneet Bhat in 2014. The crew members also won the awards for Best Costumes for a TV Programme, Best Make – Up Artist, and Best Stylist.[15] It has been dubbed to other languages including Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.[16]
Its premiere had a viewership of approximately 8.4 million people.[17] The show has become the highest rated weekday mythological epic show in the last three years on Indian television.[18] The viewership ratings of the week of 1 December 2013 reached 9,801 TVTs. The game of dice leading to Draupadi's 'cheer haran' took Mahabharat at its peak viewership(10TVTs.4 TVM) and helped the broadcasting channel Star Plus clock the highest GTVMs ever achieved by any channel in Indian Television History.[19]
In Indonesia, the drama was broadcast on antv dubbed in Indonesian in March 2014. The casts of Mahabharat were invited to hold a fan meeting tour at Jakarta and Bali. The Times of India reported in 2014 that the show has a huge fan following abroad and as result, the prominent characters from the show had been called to Indonesia for a special event.[20] The main casts of Mahabharat, performed on 'Mahabharat Show: Fan Meeting Tour' in the year 2014 .[21][22][23][24][25][26][27] As from 6 December 2015, the show starts airing in its original version and subtitled in English on MBC Digital 4 every Sunday in Mauritius. In Thailand, the drama was broadcast on Channel 5 dubbed in Thai starting January 2, 2016.[28] In Myanmar,it has been dubbed in Burma as မဟာဘာရတ and telecasted Everyday at 8:30 pm on Sky Net World Drama Channel.[citation needed]
Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Star Guild Awards | Best Ensemble Cast | Sidharth Kumar Tewary | Won |
Best Mythological Series | Swasthik Picture | |||
Indian Television Academy Awards | Best Visual Effects | Swasthik Picture | ||
Best Historical/Mythological Serial | Mahabharat | |||
Indian Telly Award | ||||
Best Costumes for a TV Program | Bhanu Athaiya | |||
Best Makeup Artist | G. A. Jamesh | |||
Best Ensemble | Sidharth Kumar Tewary | |||
Best Actor in a Negative Role | Praneet Bhat | |||
Best Stylist | Shweta Korde | |||
Best Actor in a Supporting Role | Aham Sharma | |||
Star Parivaar Awards | Favourite Naya Sadasya (Male) | Shaheer Sheikh | ||
Pehel Nayi Soch Ki | Saurabh Raj Jain and Pooja Sharma | |||
Saathi Nayi Soch Ka | Aham Sharma | |||
Nayi Soch | Saurabh Raj Jain | |||
Favourite Kutumb | Mahabharat | |||
2015 | Scroll of Honour |