Mukesh Khanna Says He Rejected Ekta Kapoor's Offer For 'Kahaani Hamaaray Mahaabhaarat Ki'

 Mukesh Khanna is best remembered as Bhishma Pitamah from BR Chopra's Mahabharat and TV's superhero Shaktimaan. The actor is quite vocal about his opinions and thoughts. He never mitigates his words and doesn't shy away from speaking his mind.

Recently, he slammed Ekta Kapoor claiming that she made a mockery out of Mahabharat and ruining it by casting daily soap actors.

"Ekta Kapoor took Ronit Roy to play Bhishma Pitamah and they were flaunting six-pack abs, she took popular heroines to play Draupadi and other female characters. I did 15 films before bagging the role of Bhishma Pitamah. I had given a proper look test wearing a beard and a moustache. We were selected on the basis of our audition and they were elected and that's why they did not look like the characters. She completely ruined it, satyanash kar diya tha...," he said.

Mukesh also made a shocking revelation that soap queen Ekta had offered him a role in her version of Mahabharat, but he rejected it, "You will be surprised to know I got a call from Ekta Kapoor's production house for her version of Mahabharat when she was making it. They offered me to play the role of Shantanu (Bhishma Pitamah's father) I told them 'Do you really think I will do Shantanu after playing Bhishma' ?. She made a mockery of Mahabharat. She took all the daily soap actors and tried to make Mahabharat. They were flaunting tattoos and six-pack abs. If you want to make Mahabharat rise about it and don't try to ape it. Ekta must be very angry with me because I have spoken a lot about the kind of content she makes. I am against the way she projects women in her daily soaps," shared Mukesh Khanna.

The actor also shared that he was quite young when he played the role of Bhishma Pitamah, "The irony of my life is when I was young I played Bhishma Pitamah and enacted Shaktimaan's role much later in my career. I feel age is just a number and your face is what can make anyone believe what age you are. I strongly believe that girls and actors should not be asked about their age. I played the role of Bhishma Pitamah, a 160-year-old man when I was young and later when I became more mature I did Shaktimaan," he said.

Mukesh who has effortlessly played the larger than life roles of Bhishma Pitamah and Shaktimaan is the happiest with the reruns of classic TV shows like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Shaktimaan, Dekh Bhai Dekh and several others during the COVID-19 lockdown.