Mahabharat Katha Serial Cast

Youtube Mahabharat

Mahabharat (TV Series 1988–1990) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Dec 13, 2017 - For the 2008 TV series produced by, see. For the 2013 series produced by, see. Mahabharat Genre Historical Drama Based on Written.

Arjun (Firoz Khan) who played the role of Arjun in TV series Mahabarat, in New Delhi on August 27, 2012. Photo: V. Sudershan Photo Credit: V_Sudershan

When the tall and well-built Arjun, whose real name is Firoz Khan, was offered the role, he was only told that a big celebrity would be part of this production

Bollywood actor Arjun, who got a fresh lease of life when film-maker B. R. Chopra cast him in Mahabharat way back in the 1980s, is now playing a righteous character in an Indo-Canadian production.

Titled Blacklist, the film, which is being made in Toronto, has leading Hollywood star Brad Pitt in a small but significant role besides actor Abhishek Bachchan.

When the tall and well-built Arjun, whose real name is Firoz Khan, was offered the role, he was only told that a big celebrity would be part of this production. The Afridi Pathan from Peshawar was kept in the dark about Brad agreeing to do the film. “Brad has a cameo in the film. Abhishek and I play officers. Abhi is suspicious of me and thinks I am a baddie, but it eventually turns out that Brad is the bad guy. It was an enthralling experience working in the film. Working with Brad made me realise that he is a great human being. What a handsome man and excellent and warm person!”

Thankful to B. R. Chopra for offering him the role in Mahabharat even though he had failed in auditions, Arjun says it is important for every actor to get an identity. “I am still recognised as the warrior prince Arjun. Amitabh Bachchan is identified by his character in Zanjeer, Amjad Khan as Gabbar from Sholay, Dharmendra for his role in Phool Aur Patthar and Vinod Khanna for Kachche Dhaage.”

However, Arjun refused to be typecast as the righteous character like his mythological persona on Doordarshan. “Thanks to Mahabharat, I have acted in over 150 Hindi films. But I refused to play a character similar to Arjun. It will be the death knell for any actor if he keeps repeating himself. As an artiste, I derive more joy by playing negative characters”

In his upcoming film Welcome Part II, Arjun plays Danny Denzongpa’s younger brother. The actor knows his looks are completely dissimilar to Danny’s. “Looks do not matter in the film industry. We do not differentiate on the basis of religion, race and complexion. Even Jackie Shroff has Mongolian features, but he became such a huge star. When Amitabh came into the film industry with his long legs, people dismissed him. But he became the star of the millennium. It is only acting skills which give an actor his livelihood.”

After a gap of 27 years, Arjun will share the screen with Sunny Deol. “I acted with Sunny in my debut film Manzil Manzil. In fact, I was to star opposite Meenakshi Seshadri, but then Dimple Kapadia and Sunny were taken as the lead and I was given the villain’s role. I will share the screen with him again in Avatar.”

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

Plot[edit]

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.

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.

Cast[edit]

Main[edit]

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.

Recurring[edit]

Naveen Jingar as Vidura Mahamantri of Hastinapur, younger brother of Pandu and Dritarashtra.
Nissar Khan as Dronacharya Guru of Pandavas and Kauravas.
Ankit Mohan as Ashwatthama Dronacharya’s son, Duryodhana's friend.
Tarun Khanna as Balram Krishna’s elder brother.
Vibha Anand as Subhadra and Yogmaya Arjun’s wife.
Pallavi Subhash as Rukmini Krishna’s wife.
Ratan Rajput as Amba Princess of Kashi
Sayantani Ghosh as Satyavati Shantanu’s wife.
Kanishka Soni as Parashvi
Shikha Singh as Shikhandini Drupad’s 1st child, reincarnation of Amba.
Karan Suchak as Dhrishtadyumna Drupad’s 2nd child.
Paras Arora as Abhimanyu Uttara’s husband and Arjun and Subhadra’s son.
Richa Mukherjee as Uttara Abhimanyu’s wife.
Hemant Choudhary as Kripacharya
Sudesh Berry as Dhrupad Shikandini,Drishtadyun and Draupadi’s father.
Pravisht Mishra as Uttar Uttara’s brother.
Nazea Hasan Sayed as Vrushali Karan’s wife and Vrishkethu’s mother
Kaushik Chakravorty as Shalya Madri's brother, uncle of Nakul and Sahadev.
Sandeep Arora as Vikarn Dryodhan’s brother.
Vandana Singh as Yashoda Balram and Krishna’s foster mother.
Kunwar Vikram Soni as Krishna Radha’s lover.
Ketki Kadam as Radha Krishna’s lover.
Preeti Puri Choudhary as Devaki Balram and Krishna’s birth mother.
Vivana Singh as Ganga Shantanu’s wife and Bhishma’s mother.
Sameer Dharmadhikari as Shantanu Ganga and Satyavati’s husband.
Aparna Dixit as Ambika Dritarashtra’s mother.
Mansi Sharma as Ambalika Pandu’s mother.
Aryamann Seth as Vichitravirya Ambika and Ambalika’s husband.
Atul Mishra as Ved Vyas
Arun Singh Rana as Pandu Kunti and Madri’s husband.
Suhani Dhanki as Madri 2nd wife of Pandu, mother of Nakul and Sahadev.
Ali Hassan as Takshak and Jayadratha
Ajay Mishra as Sanjaya Dhritarashtra’s aide.
Vaishnavi Dhanraj as Hidimbi Bheem’s first wife and Ghatothkacha's mother
Anju Jadhav as Sukhada
Garima Jain as Dushala Duryodhan’s sister and Jaydrath’s wife
Ashnoor Kaur as Young Dushala
Ketan Karande as Ghatothkach Bheem and Himdimbi’s son.
Joy Mathur as Shishupala
Mohit Raina as Shiva
Puneet Issar as Parshurama Guru of Bhishma, Drone and Karna.
Nikhil Arya/Sachin Verma as Indra
Kunal Bhatia as Agni
Deepak Jethi as Virata
Tinu Verma as Jarasandha
Gurpreet Singh as Prince Rukmi Rukmini’s brother.
Jayantika Sengupta as Arshi
Rio Kapadia as Subala
Shweta Gautam as Sudharma
Chandani Sharma as Kripi
Raj Premi as Kalayavan
Siddhant Gautam as Ekalavya
Alam Khan as Duryodhan
Vidyut Xavier as young Karna
Ananya Agarwal as Malini
Akhilendra Mishra as Kansa
Rumi Khan as Kichaka

Production and promotion[edit]

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]

Reception and impact[edit]

Critics[edit]

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]

Awards and accolades[edit]

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]

Viewership[edit]

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]

Other countries[edit]

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]}

Youtube Mahabharat

Awards[edit]

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2014	Star Guild Awards	Best Ensemble Cast	Sidharth Kumar Tewary	Won
	Star Guild Awards	Best Mythological Series	Swasthik Picture
	Indian Television Academy Awards	Best Visual Effects	Swasthik Picture
	Indian Television Academy Awards	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	Mahabharat

References[edit]

^'Mahabharat Episodes'. www.hotstar.com. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
^'Parmavatar Shri Krishna to premiere soon; 5 mythological shows that redefined the genre and left us asking for more'. India Today. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
^TNN 15 September 2013, 10.27 AM IST (15 September 2013). 'Mahabharat launced for the youth of the nation! - Times Of India'. Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
^'Shakuni's role in Mahabharat once in a lifetime: Praneet Bhatt'. The Times of India. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
^'Is Shafaq Naaz miffed with Mahabharat makers?'. The Times of India. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
^'Shaheer Sheikh and Rohit Bhardwaj's Buddy Diwali!'. The Times of India. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
^'Riding high on 'Mahabharat' ratings, Star Plus tops the chart'. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
^Ajita Shashidhar. 'Broadcasters betting big money on the small screen with Rs.100 crore shows'. India Today. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
^'The cheer haran sequence in Mahabharat took 20 days to shoot'. The Indian Express. 4 April 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
^Kanabar, Ankita R. (2 April 2014). 'The cheer haran sequence in Mahabharat took 20 days to shoot'. Indian Express. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
^Nishi Tiwari. 'Review: Mahabharat, so far so good'. Rediff. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
^'A young boy from Bihar'.
^Chaya Unnikrishnan. 'Show review: 'Mahabharat''. DNA. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
^'Reality shows see a drop in ratings this week - Times Of India'. Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 8 December 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
^'13th Indian Telly Awards: Complete List of Winners'. Times of India. 18 October 2014.
^Janani Karthik (6 December 2014). 'Mahabharatham is back on Vijay TV - The Times of India'. Indian Express. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
^Debashish Mukerji. 'Riding high on 'Mahabharat' ratings, Star Plus tops the chart'. India Today. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
^Priyanka Srivastava. 'Major networks in epic ratings battle as mythological shows like Mahabharat take on reality TV for nation's viewers'. Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
^'Rise in the ratings of TV shows this week - Times Of India'. Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
^'Indonesia calling for Mahabharat!' (8 December 2014). Times of India. Times of India. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
^'Mahabharat's Shaheer Sheikh, Aham Sharma & Rohit Bhardwaj woo their fans in Indonesia!'. Pink Villa. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
^'Look what 'Mahabharat' Stars are busy doing in Indonesia!'. Pink Villa. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
^'In Pics: Team 'Mahabharat' works hard in Jakarta and parties harder in Bali!'. Pink Villa. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
^'Casts of Mahabharat will be performing using English, Hindi and Indonesian Languages'. tribunnews. 2 October 2014.
^'Mahabharat Show'. tribunnews. 3 October 2014.
^'Stars of Mahabharat will perform at Jakarta'. tribunnews. 1 October 2014.
^'Residents of Bali bought tickets for Fans Meeting of the casts of Mahabharat'. tribunnews. 4 October 2014.
^'ซีรีย์อินเดีย มหาภารตะ'. Channel 5 (in Thai). 2 January 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2016.

External links[edit]

Mahabharat on IMDb
Official Website on Hotstar

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