Mahabharat (2013 TV series)

Mahabharat

Title screen
Genre Historical television drama
Created by Siddharth Kumar Tewary
Based on Mahabharat
Written by Sharmin Joseph
Radhika Anand
Anand Vardhan
Mihir Bhuta
Siddharth Kumar Tewary
Directed by Siddharth Anand Kumar
Amarprith G
S Chawda
Kamal Monga
Loknath Pandey
Starring (For entire cast see below)
Opening theme Hai Katha Sangram Ki
Composer(s) Ajay-Atul
Ismail Darbar
Country of origin India
Original language(s) Hindi
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 267
Production
Producer(s) Siddharth Kumar Tewary
Gayatri Gil Tewary
Rahul Kumar Tewary
Running time 20 Minutes[1]
Production company(s) Swastik Pictures
Broadcast
Original channel Star Plus
Picture format 576i (SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Original run 16 September 2013 – 16 August 2014
External links
Official website
Production website

Mahabharat was an Indian Hindi-language mythological television drama series on STAR Plus based on the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata.[2][3][4][5][6] It started broadcasting on 16 September 2013 on STAR Plus.[7]

It has been produced by Swastik Productions Pvt. Ltd and stars Saurabh Raj Jain as Shri Krishna, Shaheer Sheikh as Arjuna, Pooja Sharma as Draupadi, Aham Sharma as Karna, Vibha Anand as Subhadra and Arav Chowdhary as Bhishma.[8][9]

Plot summary

Mahabharat presents the story of the throne of Hastinapur, the kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan where Kauravas and the Pandavas brothers compete for rulership. Both Duryodhan and Yudhisthir claim to be first in line to inherit the throne.

When Bhishma asked for Gandhari's hand in marriage for his blind nephew Dhritarashtra, her brother Shakuni got furious. But he later agreed when Bhishma persuaded them that Dhritrashtra would be the future king of Hastinapur. During the Coronation Ceremony; Dhritrashtra’s younger brother Pandu was made the king with the high interfluence of Vidura(Dhritrashtra’s another younger brother).

Shakuni felt that he was cheated and so he swore to himself that he would destroy the Kuru race. He sowed the seeds of the climactic battle during the adolescence of the Kauravas (Sons of Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas (Sons of Pandu) by poisoning the mind of Duryodhan; the eldest Kaurav against the Pandavas.

This results in the Kurukshetra War where Shri Krishna imparts Bhagwad Gita to his Pandav cousin Arjuna. The battle saw the deaths of Bhishma Pitamah; Karna among many. All the sons of Dhritarashtra died in the war.

Production and promotion

Star spent INR100 crore (US$16 million) on the project and spent another INR20 crore (US$3.2 million) on marketing the show, making it as India's most expensive TV series.[10]

According to producer Siddharth Kumar Tiwary the cheer haran (ritual disrobing)[11] sequence, which Tiwary directed, took twenty days to shoot.[12]

Reception

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".[13] DNA praised the costumes, scenery, Krishna's flute theme, and most of the CGI special effects, but said the story pace was too fast.[14]

Its premier had a viewership of approximately 8.4 million people.[15] The show has become the highest rated weekday mythology show in the last three years on Indian television.[16]

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.[17]

It won the trophy for the Best Drama in Star Guild Awards 2013 as well as number of accolades in Star Parivar Awards 2014 and a number of other award shows.[18]

Other Languages

It has been dubbed to other languages also. In Bengali version has shown on STAR Jalsha ,Marathi on STAR Pravah and in Oriya on Colors Oriya. It has been dubbed in malayalam language and is aired on asianet as "Mahabharatham". Its Tamil language-dubbed version (Mahabharatham) aired on Vijay TV,and also in telugu language as "Mahabharatham" telecasting in "Maa tv" presently with the channel deciding to rebroadcast the series in December 2014.[19]

Cast

References

  1. ↑ "Mahabharat (2013 TV series) Technical specifications". IMDb. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  2. ↑ TNN 15 Sep 2013, 10.27AM IST (2013-09-15). "Mahabharat launced for the youth of the nation! - Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  3. ↑ Shakuni's role in Mahabharat once in a lifetime: Praneet Bhatt - Times Of India
  4. ↑ Is Shafaq Naaz miffed with Mahabharat makers? - Times Of India
  5. ↑ Shaheer Sheikh and Rohit Bhardwaj’s Buddy Diwali! - Times Of India
  6. ↑ Riding high on 'Mahabharat' ratings, Star Plus tops the chart : Featured, News - India Today
  7. ↑ Deepanjana Pal. "The new Mahabharat is an epic fail". Firstpost. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  8. ↑ Actors take on Mahabharat - Times Of India
  9. ↑ Paranormal activity on the sets of Mahabharat - Times Of India
  10. ↑ Ajita Shashidhar. "Broadcasters betting big money on the small screen with Rs.100 crore shows". India Today. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  11. ↑ http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/screen/the-cheer-haran-sequence-in-mahabharat-took-20-days-to-shoot/
  12. ↑ Kanabar, Ankita R. (2 April 2014). "The cheer haran sequence in Mahabharat took 20 days to shoot". Indian Express. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  13. ↑ Nishi Tiwari. "Review: Mahabharat, so far so good". Rediff. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  14. ↑ Chaya Unnikrishnan. "Show review: 'Mahabharat'". DNA. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
  15. ↑ Debashish Mukerji. "Riding high on 'Mahabharat' ratings, Star Plus tops the chart". India Today. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
  16. ↑ Priyanka Srivastava. "Major networks in epic ratings battle as mythological shows like Mahabarat take on reality TV for nation's viewers". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  17. ↑ "Rise in the ratings of TV shows this week - Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2013-12-01. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  18. ↑ "Reality shows see a drop in ratings this week - Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2013-12-08. Retrieved 20. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  19. ↑ Janani Karthik (6 December 2014). "Mahabharatham is back on Vijay TV - The Times of India". Indian Express. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  20. ↑ Neha Maheswri (27 October 2013). "Pallavi to play Krishna’s Rukmini". Times of India. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  21. ↑ Ankita R. Kanabar (27 February 2014). "Rohit Shetty adds humour to Khatron Ke Khiladi". The Indian Express. Retrieved 18 March 2014.

External links