Ekta's Mahabharat to end soon? - Article

Ekta's Mahabharat to end soon?

Entertainment channel 9X is contemplating shortening Ekta Kapoor's Kahaani Hamaaray Mahabharat Ki, given its tepid response and high cost. One of Ekta's biggest projects in the last couple of years, the show has already undergone major changes in costume and acting.

A source said that the show might be rapidly concluded instead of making it a long-drawn affair.
"Talks has been going on for a few days on this and the show will not immediately go off the air but it is true that it is not getting desired response," the source said, "We have tried so many different things with Mahabharat and showed so much detail, but nothing seems to work well."

The modernist costume of the show by Manish Malhotra looked like Greek to viewers and that was changed to bring about a more traditional look. Then there was an acting course that the cast was put through, because their delivery was too close to that of the Saas-Bahu serials. "We have heard that the show will not end immediately, but concluded early next year," an actor on the show said, "It was suppose to end towards the middle of 2009 but it appears that it will have a shorter life than that."


"The show has been a limited viewership and and is quite an expensive project," another source on the set said, "the cost per episode is at least Rs 40 lakh."

The show started this July with much hype, but could not achieve the response the earlier Mahabharat (on Doordarshan) got. Similarly, NDTV Imagine's Ramayan also did not get the kind of sweeping viewership that the earlier, much less slick, version got.

http://www.indya.com/news/newsDetails.aspx?xfile=2008/October/News_20081029_150

Sonali Joshi, Hill Road Media

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

How will they shorten it? Unless they skip lots of important sub plots, it is impossible to shorten a story like MB, that too when zillions of sub plots have been invented by Ms Ekta Kapoor in her verison (the latest being Duryodhan killing Bhim's saarthi and Karna saving Kunti's life)

haan they can shorten it..lakshagreh, draupadi swayamvar, khandavprastra, game of dice, pandavas vanvaas and kurukshetra war..they might cover only these..

Maybe this explains battles being covered in 2-3 minutes. 😆

I was hoping that for once, we might get the complete epic (ie everything up to Swargarohana and possibly the story of Parikshit and Janamejaya as well) since Ekta normally loves to stretch her shows for as long as possible. Looks like that won't be happening. 🤔

Maybe Bobby Bedi will cover the whole text. At least we can hope. 😃

Originally posted by: shyam.rathi

(the latest being Duryodhan killing Bhim's saarthi and Karna saving Kunti's life)

I will check to make sure but this story may have been taken from Mrityunjaya.

Originally posted by: niveditha

The show started this July with much hype, but could not achieve the response the earlier Mahabharat (on Doordarshan) got. Similarly, NDTV Imagine's Ramayan also did not get the kind of sweeping viewership that the earlier, much less slick, version got.

Originally posted by: Kal El

I will check to make sure but this story may have been taken from Mrityunjaya.

We will really appreciate if you can verify this. Your knowledge about MB and its other versions is truly incomparable 👏... Please throw some light on these sub plots..

Thank you 😊

Originally posted by: Kal El

Maybe this explains battles being covered in 2-3 minutes. 😆

It's difficult to say so.. because they are covering lots of unnecessary details on the expense of actual war scenes.. I dont see a point showing Duryodhan killing Bhim's sarathi on the expense of war with Drupada.. I think it is more to do with their inability to direct a war like this..

i agree Lalitha-Janki... 👍🏼

maybe they'll have a leap or 2 lol the pandavs go into exile like twice don't they????

Originally posted by: godisone

Yes, but NDTV Ramayan is much more famous than Ekta's MB, isn't it?😆 It at least sticks to the storyline (although I admit there are some deviations fron the script).

And the cast of Ramayan is incomparable to that of Ekta's MB.