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.

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.

• 2Cast
• 4Reception and impact

Plot[edit]

Mahabharat presents the story of Hastinapur, a kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan where the Kaurav and the Pandav brothers compete for its throne. Yudhistir, the eldest Pandav, and Duryodhan, the eldest Kaurav claim to be the next in the line of succession.The Pandavs are the sons of Pandu while Kauravs are the sons of Dhritrashtra.

The story begins with Devavrata,the son of Shantanu and Ganga a disciple of Parshuram.He earns the name Bhisma by swearing an oath of celibacy in order to fulfill his father’s wish to marry Satyavati. He also vows serve the throne of Hastinapur and is granted the boon of ‘icchya-mrityu’(the ability to live as long as he does not choose to die).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 incapable of choosing a wife for himself, Bhisma has to do so.

The three princesses of the Salva Kingdom, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika are won over by Bhisma,who takes them to Hastinapur to be married to Vichitravirya. 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 then marries 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 refuses, due to his oath of celibacy, 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, son of Vichitravirya 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]

Recurring[edit]

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

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]}

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

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

External links[edit]

• Mahabharat on IMDb
• Official Website on Hotstar