II SHAHEER SHEIKH II **~Bharatasattama ARJUNA~ **AT#25 - Page 96

1988 or 2013. Mahabharat has always been popular. Writes Rishita Mukhopadhyay.

There is a saying that "What is not there in Mahabharat is nowhere else. The literal meaning of this is there is nothing in Bharta which is not there in Mahbharata. This saying has been proved to be correct once again by the current running TV Series Mahabharat. This TV Series, which began on the 16th September last year has touched the peak of its fame. Leaving the other serials way behind..it has become the No 1 Tv Series. Why? Lets have a look

BEHIND THE SCENES

Swastik Productions have spend almost 100 crores behind this project of Mahabharat. It is the most expensive and high budget project in the history of small screen. Almost 20 crores have been spend behind the marketing of this project.! Many famous names are related to the serial. Creative inputs and scripts are doen by Bollywood's leading script writer Salim Khan. Costume design is in the hands of Oscar winning costume designer Bhanu Athaiya. Siddharth Anand Kumar is the director along with G.S Chauda, Kamal Moga and Loknath Pandey. The series has been dubbed into Bengali,Tamil,Telugu,Marathi and Malayalam too

Rathis and Maharathis

Mahabharat means the fights between Kauravas and Pandavas. Arjuna's Gandiv, Draupadi's Vastraharan and so much more extravaganza! And thinking of the characters..we remember some familiar faces. Hear Bheeshma..and we remember Mukesh Khanna. Mukesh Khanna played the role of Bheeshma in 1988 in the Mahbharat by B.R Chopra. This was the most challenging part for Arav Chawdhury. He is the Bheeshma for this generation. Arav,who has acted in "Gulal' in small screen and in "Dhoom" in big screen bagged the role immediately on receiving the offer. He potrayed Bheeshma in his own unique way. Even though there is doubt whether he is successful.. THERE IS NO DOUBT ABOUT SHAHEER SHEIKH IN THE ROLE OF ARJUNA, THE 3RD OF THE PANDAVAS AND THE BRAVE WARRIOR (POTRAYEDTHE HERO OF MAHABHARAT). THIS NEW ARJUN IS QUITE POPULAR BETWEEN THE VIEWERS. SHAHEER CAME INTO LIMELIGHT THROUGH "Kya Mast Hai Life" IN 2009. FOR MAHABHARAT, SHAHEER TOOK LESSONS OF HORSE RIDING, SWORD FIGHTING AND ARCHERY. APART FROM BEING EXTREMELY EFFICIENT ON BOTH ACTING AND PRESENTING HIMSELF ON SCREEN, SHEIKH HAS ALSO IMPROVED HIS BODY CURVES. Speaking of Arjun, the next character we remember is Krishna. And NO OTHER ACTOR but Saurabh Raaj Jain could have suited the role of Vasudev Shri Krishna.. Saurabh started his career in 2004 with "Remix" and in the middle of his career he started being casted by producers in different mythological serials ad Vishnu and Krishna. In Jai Shri Krishna and Devon ka Dev Mahadev, he potrayed the role of Lord Vishnu effieciently. As a result, in this high budget Mahabharat, no one could be thought as Krishna expect Saurabh Raaj Jain aka SRJ.. Although he has been compared with Nitish Bharadwaj in several cases, he was successful in making a space in the viewers' mind!

Pooja "Draupadi" Sharma also knew the fact that she will surely face comparisons with Roopa Ganguly (1988 Mahabharat Draupadi). Sharma, who came from the modelling world did alot of homework for this role. Speaking about comparisons, Sharma considers being compared to Ganguly as her big achievement. Praneet Bhatt, or Shakuni did not take up any project for 2 years to be prepare himself for the role of Shakuni. He prepared himself slowly. His style of closing one eye and speaking and referring to Duryodhana as "Mere bache" is quite popular. Aham Sharma as Karna has faced too much criticism. Many say,compared to Pankaj Dheer(1988) he is quite unconvincing. Mahabharat was looking for a strong Duryodhan, who will have both physical and acting skills. Arpit Ranka was selected for the role. Some years ago, Ranka won the Best Body Award in Glam-Rags Competition. There is only one similarity between the old Mahabharat and the new one. In both the serials, the role of "Satyavati" was played by Bengali girls. Debasree Roy in the older on and Sayantani Ghosh in this one. Satyavati was a challenging character for Sayantani. Ghosh has done several workshops to improve her acting,body language and diction.

And making all these hardworks successful... the first episode of Mahabharat has got 80 Lakh viewers. No other show before had received so many viewers in one single episode.

- See more at: http://shaheer-fanatic.tumblr.com/post/79353344745/print-media-bengali-magazine-mahabharat-katha#sthash.wIXioilh.dpuf