Mahabharat (2013 TV series)

Mahabharat
Genre Mythological television drama
Created by Siddharth Kumar Tewary
Based on Mahabharata
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 Sangraam Ki
Ending theme Mahabharat
Composer(s) Ajay-Atul
Ismail Darbar
Country of origin India
Original language(s) Hindi
No. of episodes 267[1]
Production
Producer(s) Siddharth Kumar Tewary
Gayatri Gil Tewary
Rahul Kumar Tewary
Editor(s) Paresh Shah
Location(s) Umargoan
Running time 20 minutes[2]
Production company(s) Swastik Pictures
Release
Original network Star Plus
Picture format 576i (SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Original release 16 September 2013 (2013-09-16) – 16 August 2014 (2014-08-16)
External links
Official website
Production website

Mahabharat is an Indian Hindi-language mythological television drama series on STAR Plus based on the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. It is a remake of the 1988 TV series of the same name.[3][4][5][6][7] It ran from 16 September 2013 to 16 August 2014 on STAR Plus.[8]

It has been produced by Swastik Productions Pvt. Ltd starring Saurabh Raj Jain as Shri Krishna, Shaheer Sheikh as Arjuna, Pooja Sharma as Draupadi, Aham Sharma as Karna, Arav Chowdhary as Bhishma, Arpit Ranka as Duryodhana, Paras Arora as Abhimanyu and Shafaq Naaz as Kunti,Veebha Anand as Subhadra , Richa Mukherjee as Uttara and Pallavi Subhash as Rukmini .

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. Duryodhan, the eldest kaurav is younger than Yudhisthir, the eldest pandav.

Kunti obtained a boon from sage Durvasa, where she could invoke any deity and could bear his child. Out of curiosity, she decided to test the boon and uttered the mantra calling upon the Sun god and was handed a baby, Karna. Kunti, an unwed mother, set Karna afloat on the river Ganga with a heavy heart, in order to avoid the embarrassment of having a child before marriage. After her marriage to Pandu, Kunti invoked other deities and had her sons, Yudhishtir, Bheem, Arjun, Nakul and Sahadev (from Madri). Neither Karna, nor the Pandavas knew the true identity of Karna until the end of the Kurukshetra War. Karna fought against misfortune throughout his life, and was often ill-treated as he was the son of a charioteer. (Adiratha, a charioteer and his wife Radha found Karna on the banks of river Ganga and raised him as their own.) Duryodhan, the mortal enemy of the Pandavas was the only person who supported Karna, even when the Pandava brothers insulted him for being a skilled archer while belonging to a lower caste. Thus Karna made a vow to protect Duryodhan throughout his lifetime and fought on his behalf against the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra War.

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, Karna among many. All the sons of Dhritarashtra died in the war, except Yuyutsu, his son through a vaishya woman - Sugdha.

Production and promotion

Star spent ₹100 crore (US$15 million) on the project and spent another ₹20 crore (US$3.0 million) on marketing the show, making it India's most expensive TV series.[9]

According to producer Siddharth Kumar Tiwary the cheer haran ( disrobing)[10] sequence, which Tiwary directed, took twenty days to shoot.[11]

Reception and impact

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

Its premier had a viewership of approximately 8.4 million people.[14] The show has become the highest rated weekday mythology show in the last three years on Indian television.[15]

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.[16]

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.[17]

It has been dubbed to other languages including Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Malayalam , Tamil and Telugu.[18]

In Indonesia, the drama was broadcast on antv dubbed in Indonesian in March 2014. It became popular in Indonesia and led to a reality show on the same network called, Panah Asmara Arjuna (Arjuna's Arrow of Love) featuring the lead actor, Shaheer Sheikh.[19][20][21]

As from 6th December 2015, the show starts airing in its original version and subtitled in English on MBC Digital 4 every Sunday in Mauritius.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ http://www.hotstar.com/tv/mahabharat/435 to check the no. of episodes are published correctly
  2. ↑ "Mahabharat (2013 TV series) Technical specifications". IMDb. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Shakuni's role in Mahabharat once in a lifetime: Praneet Bhatt - Times Of India
  5. ↑ Is Shafaq Naaz miffed with Mahabharat makers? - Times Of India
  6. ↑ Shaheer Sheikh and Rohit Bhardwaj’s Buddy Diwali! - Times Of India
  7. ↑ Riding high on 'Mahabharat' ratings, Star Plus tops the chart : Featured, News - India Today
  8. ↑ Deepanjana Pal. "The new Mahabharat is an epic fail". Firstpost. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  9. ↑ Ajita Shashidhar. "Broadcasters betting big money on the small screen with Rs.100 crore shows". India Today. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
  10. ↑ http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/screen/the-cheer-haran-sequence-in-mahabharat-took-20-days-to-shoot/
  11. ↑ Kanabar, Ankita R. (2 April 2014). "The cheer haran sequence in Mahabharat took 20 days to shoot". Indian Express. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  12. ↑ Nishi Tiwari. "Review: Mahabharat, so far so good". Rediff. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  13. ↑ Chaya Unnikrishnan. "Show review: 'Mahabharat'". DNA. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
  14. ↑ Debashish Mukerji. "Riding high on 'Mahabharat' ratings, Star Plus tops the chart". India Today. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ "Rise in the ratings of TV shows this week - Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2013-12-01. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  17. ↑ "Reality shows see a drop in ratings this week - Times Of India". Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2013-12-08. Retrieved 2015-08-22.
  18. ↑ Janani Karthik (6 December 2014). "Mahabharatham is back on Vijay TV - The Times of India". Indian Express. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  19. ↑ http://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/mahabharat-takes-indonesia-by-storm-114121800426_1.html
  20. ↑ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tv/news/hindi/Indonesia-calling-for-Mahabharat/articleshow/45409112.cms
  21. ↑ http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/screen/indonesians-impressed-by-mahabharats-yudhisthir/
  22. ↑ Neha Maheswri (27 October 2013). "Pallavi to play Krishna's Rukmini". Times of India. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  23. ↑ Ankita R. Kanabar (27 February 2014). "Rohit Shetty adds humour to Khatron Ke Khiladi". The Indian Express. Retrieved 18 March 2014.

External links

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