Veer Shivaji

Veer Shivaji was an Indian historical drama series that aired on Colors TV. The show focuses on the life of Shivaji, the 17th century founder of the Maratha Kingdom.^[1] It premiered on September 2, 2011 and was produced by Contiloe Telefilms, who had earlier created the historical drama Jhansi Ki Rani on Zee TV. Due to the instant success and popularity and with TRP of more than 2.60, the show timing were extended to five days a week (Monday to Friday at 8:30 pm) from 3 October 2011.^[2]

After the introduction of adult Shivaji (from Paras Arora to Dr. Amol Kolhe), the drama's target rating points began to dip drastically. The show was abruptly ended on May 25, 2012.^[3] They were also threatened by radical Muslims to end it.

Story

The story starts with young Shivaji participating in a horse race disguised as a commoner. He helps a fallen rider which makes him become last in the race for a moment; however, he still catches up and wins. When provided with the award, Shivaji refuses, saying that the race was intended for the common men; therefore only the first commoner was the righteous winner of the race. When asked whether he is not a common man he refused and took off his beard and mustache to show his real face. Shivaji rides back to his palace. On the way he sees an old man and his family crying. When asked the matter, they replied that all of their wheat had been taken by sultan Adil Shah's soldiers as a form of tax. Shivaji's acquaintance and adviser, Baji Kaka promises the old man that they will provide him with wheat the next day.

When Shivaji asks Baji Kaka why Adil Shah takes tax from the villagers, he replies that no one has known that for years. As Shivaji returns, his mother Jijabai and wife Saibai are praying to their family deity, Aai bhavani. Maa sahib tells SaiBai to take Raje's aarti but Raje again refuses saying "I am not worth it when there are foreign powers snatching everything from our public." Then Masahib tells him that he has not seen anything yet. The conditions are worse than can be seen: People are killed in public places by flogging or being stoned to death.

Adil Shah is shown in the next scene to be bathing in a pool of rose petals with a servant girl sitting outside the pool. He tells the servant that he loves her a lot, but he must go out of the palace for royal work. He tells the girl a story about a Rajput king who loved his lover a lot but also had to leave for royal duties. From abroad he sent his beloved a letter that he wanted to see her; his lover cut off her head and sent it to him. Adil shah tells his servant girl this story intending that she do the same for him. She asks for mercy but Adil shah grabs a sword and cuts off her head.

On the other side, Shivaji is being served his dinner. Once again he refuses to eat as he knows that he can't eat as long as his people are starving under Adil Shah's rule. Shivaji makes a plan with his friends to steal back the wheat from Adil Shah's stores. They enter the wheat storage using a rope and anchor. As Raje gets in, the soldiers guarding the stores hear him and go into the stores to see who is the thief. Shivaji hides beside a sack of grain and Shivaji gets the sack down. Then, they go to the people who are starving and leave the grain there anonymously. Everybody thinks god has given the grains to them.

Adil Shah's officials come to the village and gets the grains. The accuse those poor people of theft and start beating them. Suddenly Shivaji comes, with a turban covering his face, and grabs their leader. Shivaji takes him down to a dusty area and tries to kill him but before that, his soldiers arrive. Their leader was going to remove turban and see Shivaji's face but many cows are released by Shivaji's friends towards them. The soldiers lose their attention and Shivaji escapes, losing his turban and garland. The soldiers of Adil Shah come to Shivaji's palace and ask Jija Bai about this deed, by showing the turban and garland. Jija Bai teases him by saying that a soldier of Adil Shah is defeated by a child. He goes away but Jija Bai understood that this is done by Shivaji.then jijabai calls shivaji and asks him about this all shivaji begun to ask her questions like where is my baba-sahib.these all questions makes her unanswered and then ma-sahib tells him that they are going to Banglore.

on the way masahib tells sai-bai about her other ma-sahib-tukabai.they all reaches bangalore.there they all are given a hearty welcome.one evening shahaji and his soldiers were trying to tame the mad horse.shivaji comes out running and began to tame the horse.he was successful in this but his babasahib tells him that he should be more practical.hereby he arranges his combat with shivaji's elder brother sambhaji.shivaji beguns to practice more and more to win the combat.sai asks raje to tie a dhaaga as for his good luck.on the day of combat shivaji ultimately loses his thread but the victory was to our raje.

Cast

• Paras Arora as Shivaji Raje Bhosale
• Dr. Amol Kolhe as Shivaji Bhosale (Shivaji after leap)
• Shilpa Tulaskar as Jijabai Bhosale - Shahaji's first wife, Sambhaji and Shivaji's mother
• Palak Jain as Saibai Bhosle (née Saibai Nimbalkar) - Shivaji's first and beloved wife
• Ayesha Kaduskar as Soyarabai - (née Soyarabai Mohite)Shivaji's second wife
• Ruchita Jadhav ... Elder Soyarabai
• Milind Gunaji as Maharaja Shahaji Raje Bhosale - Jijabai's husband, Shivaji and Sambhaji's father
• Mandar Jadhav as Sambhaji Bhosale - Shivaji's elder brother
• Ritesh Mobh ... Elder Sambhaji
• Ali Hassan as Sultan Muhammad Adil Shah - The series antagonist
• Natasha Sinha as Begum Huzur - Sultan Adil Shah's mother
• Hemant Choudhary as Shyamraj Nilkanth Pant
• Amit Behl as Sonopant Pingle
• Kumar Hegde as Baji Pasalkar
• Alok Narula as Rustam Zaman
• Chetan Hansraj as Inayat Khan - The series secondary antagonist
• Behzaad Khan as Noor Khan
• Tarun khanna as Afzal Khan
• Sonia Singh as Rambha Naikin/Janabai - A famous dancer and courtesan. Served as an antagonist for a brief period.
• Manoj Kumar as Aurangzeb
• Arav Chowdharry as Dara Shikoh
• Amit Mohanrao Deshmukh as Bhimaji "Bhimya" Wagh
• Jasveer Kaur as Gauhar - Inayat Khan's mistress
• Dinesh Sharma as Tanaji Malusare
• Ravi Bhatia as Jiva Mahala
• Ishita Vyas as Janakibai
• Romanch Mehta ... Jaswant Singh
• Yuri Suri ... Sujat Khan
• Manoj Verma ... Fateh Khan
• Amit Pachori ... Netaji Palkar
• Gopal K Singh ... Bahirji Naik
• Raza Murad as Shah Jahan
• Sonia Sharma as Elder Saibai
• Smita Shewale as Putalabai (née Putalabai Palkar)
• Zaffar Beg as Sharhaan Singh

Awards

References

External links