Good God!
Kshama Rao | April 6, 2013With his sculpted physique and serene demeanour, TV show Mahadev's Mohit Raina has a devoted fan following. But playing god isn't always easy.
He emerges from the water, drops glistening on his torso, bare and bronzed. His smouldering gaze, tinted blue because of the lenses he wears, is intense. And then the spell breaks. "Shivaaa..." sings the television set, signalling a commercial break. And female viewers across the nation, breathless with anticipation, pray that he'll be back soon.
Mohit Raina, who plays Lord Shiva in Life OK's hit show Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev, and has acquired quite a cult following. People even beg him to visit the hospital to cure their loved ones. "I want to shake them up and tell them I am not God, " Raina says, adding that gradually, he understood that people are just demonstrating their love and faith and using him as a medium to connect with God. "They even tell me, 'Don't misunderstand us. We are not doing this to Mohit but to Shiva because you are chosen by him so don't deny us that moment, " he says.
The 30-year-old actor adds that he's being level-headed about his newfound celebrity avatar. "I don't take myself as Mohit very seriously so I don't take myself as God too seriously either. But it's my job to play this very larger-than-life character, and I take that responsibility seriously. "
Sanjay Sharma, executive producer, says they auditioned 50 actors for the role of Mahadev. "Mohit was the 10th or the 12th guy but somehow he stayed in our mind, " Sharma says. Nikhil Sinha, producer and series director of Mahadev, adds, "As a director, I had a certain image of Shiva in mind and Mohit fit the bill perfectly. Today, he has become one with Mahadev and there is no way we can separate the two. " Amish Tripathi, who has authored a trilogy on Lord Shiva, is a huge fan. "It almost seems to me that Lord Shiva himself has blessed Mohit with his presence, " he says.
Raina admits to having reservations about taking on an immortal character at first, and says that during the early stages of the show, he relied a great deal on viewer feedback to determine how he would play the role. "The audience told us what they liked about Mahadev and what they didn't, and that's how the show began shaping up, " Raina says. Playing a character of such spiritual depth is daunting, and the actor admits to learning new things about his character as the story unfolds. "I don't think I can rest easy till the last day because the character is so big that there is no end to it. "
Sinha believes Raina's greatest strength is his commitment to the part, and Leena Jumani, Raina's Bandini co-star, recalls how he has always been a focused actor. "He's not the let's-foolaround-on-the-sets type of guy, " she says. Off screen, Sharma says the actor doesn't drink or smoke, lives with his mother and wakes up at 5 am every day for the 18 to 20 hour shifts. Despite his rigorous schedule, he makes time to go the gym and works out regularly to maintain his spectacular physique. But it isn't all about his body. Kermeez Shroff, 24, tarot card reader, "I am a big fan of Mohit because I think he embraces the character completely. Yes, there are his good looks and physique but anyone can look good. It's only he who can be Shiva. He plays it beautifully. " Raina doesn't believe he has had to make any major lifestyle adjustments after taking on this part. "I don't socialise much, I am not an outgoing person, " he says.
Raina says he has not been changed by the show's success. At an event organised in Haridwar earlier this year as part of the Mahadev Ganga Mahotsav or Ganges clean-up drive, Mohit was greeted by about 20, 000 people who kept chanting his name. His fan-following encouraged the channel to release a limited edition of Mahadev DVDs in February this year. But the self-effacing actor just says, "On TV, it's about fitting the bill. I resemble what they had seen on calendars. "
As far as his own spiritual life goes, Raina, who is from Amarnath in Kashmir, calls himself a believer in Lord Shiva since childhood, having inculcated this from his father, a staunch believer. It was an emotional moment for his family when they first saw him as Lord Shiva. "But it's family, so they don't take you very seriously. I am just their son, " he says.
Raina informs that his heartthrob status isn't restricted to middle-age and elderly women;it cuts across age, gender and even religion. People have told him that he has changed their lives. "When I say something as Mahadev, it seems to make an impact on them, " he says. "You put your heart and soul into a show and when it doesn't work it hurts, " he says. "Now with Mahadev doing well, it has to be the highest point of my career. "
He isn't worried about finding a new avatar, when the time comes. "This is 2013 and the mindset has changed, " he says, concluding, "I know I will break that mold. "
From the Editor-in-Chief
In his rising popularity, Shiva has left behind Krishna and Ram, the avatars of Vishnu, both of whom had dominated popular culture since the 1980s. Two television serials from the 1980s, Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan and B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat, which riveted the nation's attention one Sunday after another on Doordarshan, did much to promote Ram and Krishna in the national consciousness. That period also coincided with the rise of Hindu nationalism in the political domain and the demand for the Ram temple in Ayodhya. For the BJP, which has since toned down its Hindu rhetoric and symbolism, Ram has always been the God of choice.
The rise of Shiva has a lot to do with his depiction in pop culture but is completely apolitical. The young author Amish Tripathi achieved a rare feat for an Indian writing in English when he sold more than a million copies of his Shiva trilogy, all works of fiction, in which Shiva is the central character. The film rights to his books have been bought by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. One can expect the already rising popularity of Shiva to get a serious boost once those films are released. On television, the very popular serial Devon Ke Dev... Mahadev has made a demigod of its leading star Mohit Raina, who is greeted with devotion in public,something that was experienced by the stars of Ramayann and Mahabharat.
Behind all this, is a rediscovery of Shiva's many virtues. He is viewed as the ideal family man, devoted to his wife, an attractive quality at a time when urban Indians find it harder to make relationships work. He is a symbol of modern masculinity, the attractive kind without the hard edges that the average male often dishes out to the female. Shiva is macho but compassionate. In an age when a majority is caught in a rat race to be the best, Shiva stands for effortless cool. He is good-looking, even with matted hair and a loin cloth. He occasionally smokes cannabis without fuss. He is a symbol of eroticism, the epitome of a good lover.
Our cover story, written by Senior Editor Gayatri Jayaraman, captures this new social trend amongst the urban youth. Shiva is worn on body tattoos and on T-shirts. His accessories, like the rudraksha beads, are sported as trendy bracelets or necklaces. Most of all, chic Shiva is a friend, philosopher and guide to young people as they struggle to meet the complex demands of city life, whether at home or at work.
I find it interesting that Shiva's rising popularity graph has little to do with religion. Even atheists are happy to play along. Remarkably, it is a completely secular cultural trend. Om Namah Shivaya.
The Age of Shiva
Nataraja has gone from mandatory bronze souvenirs gifted to visiting foreign delegations to dude of the hour and deity superhero. Fandom is the new devotion and it's going viral via television, pulp fiction and film.
The serial Devon Ke Dev Mahadev on channel Life OK has current television viewer ratings of 2.1, and has hit highs of 8.2 for key episodes. Lead actor Mohit Raina, 30, calls it the effect of Shiva's 'superhero' quality. Grown men fall prostrate at his feet at promotional melas in Haridwar, women seek him out as son-in-law for their daughters. and young girls chase him like Mr Right. Tulika Dubey, 26, in Mumbai, Anjali Singh, 23, in Pune and UK-based Shruti Trivedi, 31, became Twitter friends and set up the Mohit Raina_FC in March 2012. They spend nights discussing Shiva, their Mills and Boon hero, with hundreds of followers.
"People don't say I look divine, they say I look sexy. They are not devotees of Shiva, they are his fans," says Raina. The Michael Jackson-like frenzy for Shiva makes for compelling marketing. The Shiva trilogy by author Amish Tripathi has sold over one million copies, forcing Amitabh Bachchan to comment that he never thought he'd see the day when a book is celebrated with a movie-worthy party. Dharma Productions, which bought rights to the first book, sends it to the production floor in late 2014 promising an epic of Harry Potter-like proportions.
An author struggling to be published in 2010, Tripathi's advocacy of Shiva has made him one of India's most visible writers today. His writing, born of a complete enthusiasm for how cool Shiva is, reshaped public perception by making mythology acceptable.
From tattoo artists to parents who are glad their children are reading at all, many attribute Shiva mania to his single-minded effort.