||Mahabharat - Article Archive|| DT's Nt pg 65 - Page 2

Oscar-winning costume designer Bhanu Athaiya has been roped in to design the costumes for TV show Mahabharat.

The 85-year-old Athaiya, who won the Oscar for her costumes in Gandhi, is a consulting faculty for TV's mythological saga Mahabharat and joining her on this show will be Nidhi Yasha.

Athaiya said the designs on the mythological show will be loyal to Indian traditions and weaves.

"I'm really delighted to be a part of such a huge TV venture. The entire look of Mahabharat will revive Indian handicrafts and traditional weaves. Different ancient techniques have been used to achieve the various looks. A lot of bright coloured silks, handlooms, gold and jewellery structured embroidery patterns have been used.

"My team and I were very meticulous about every detail to remain true to the character. We have worked hard on designing this show and I'm sure our effort will translate beautifully to the audiences," Athaiya said.

Yasha said they studied over 450 books related to period textiles, costume and jewellery to arrive at the present look

for the show.

Mahabharat will see Samir Dharmadhikari play Shantanu, Shayantani Ghosh as Satyavati, Aarav Chaudhary as Bheeshma, Arpit Ranka as Duryodhan, Puneet Issar as Parshuram, Saurabh Jain as Krishna, Ratan Rajput as Amba and Pooja Sharma in the

role of Draupadi.

Bollywood's favourite Mahabharat Characters

Commenting on the VFX, Sriniwas Rao - VFX Supervisor, Swastik Productions, says, "This is the first time that Indian television will see something on such a large scale. I have seen the rough cuts and trust me, all I can say is it looks very real." He adds further, "Creating bullets for films is so much easier then creating arrows for Mahabharat. Recreating the whole look and feel of an ancient period was a challenge as it required a lot of imagination. But I am completely enjoying the task."

Talking about the budget of the film, Rao, who's earlier worked on special effects for films like Jajantaram Mamantaram, Veer, Aladin, 3 Idiots, says, "There are rumours about the project being 100 crores, but I can tell you it is much more than that. With a minute-long VFX sequence costing around Rs. 50,000 to Rs.70,000, one can imagine the entire budget for the show."

Starring people like Saurabh Jain, Pooja Sharma, Sayantani Ghosh, Pallavi Subhash, Prannet Bhatt and Puneet Issar, Mahabharat will replace Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai. With around 25 episodes

Rohit Bharadwaj, who was last in Star Plus' Navyais all set to be back on screen with a bang in the role of Yudhisthir in Siddharth Kumar Tiwary's upcoming mythological show Mahabharat. Rohit has prepared himself well to get involved in the character of Yudhishthir. TellyBuzz here unveils the first look picture of Rohit as Yudhishthir inMahabharat.

Talking about the preparations he has done to play this character perfectly, he told us, "I started off with the basic step and that too reading books not only related to Mahabharat but also about the people who talk about dharma as Yudhishthir is known as Dharmaraj. I have also watched few scenes of the older version of Mahabharat."

When asked about his costumes in the show, whether he is comfortable wearing costumes or not, he laughed and said, "No one feels comfortable with their costumes here but the costume is very beautiful and gracious. As an actor, its feeling wonderful to be a part of the show and wearing heavy costumes, jewellery and Mukut. It's looking grand visually but it's very difficult to wear all these things and perform but we have forgotten about the difficulties because the kind of show it is."

Rohit shared about the bonding with his co-actors on the sets, "My older love Shaheer Sheikh is here on this show. We are sharing the same room and he calls me Bhai and I call him Chote. I am enjoying with him. We meet and make new friends at a new place but nayi jagah par purana dost mil jaye toh thoda easy ho jata hai (Chukles)."

He is very excited about the launch of the mythological show Mahabharat, "I am feeling very excited about the launch of this show. Initially, I didn't realize that how huge this show is going to be but I have now realized that this show is going to be so huge. People are going to love the show. If they won't like the content, they will like the accessories like jewellery, if they don't like the jewellery they will like the acting and if they don't like the acting, they will love the visuals."