The three impressive Chanakyas I have seen on TV were
1)Chandraprakash Dwivedi in the 1990 Chanakya, which is the gold standard for a pre-Mauryan era historical on Indian TV,
2) Manish Wadhwa in the 2012 Chandragupta Maurya, whose sheer, unsmiling presence and effortless gravitas were extremely impressive, and
3) Manoj Joshi in the recent Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat, who was avuncular but still dominating.
Even without the distortions, I would not slot Chetan Pandit , otherwise a very capable actor, with these three. For me at least, he never quite made the grade. Plus his Sanskrit enunciation was abysmal.
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With the distortions, he was reduced to looking like an ADC to Porus, not his wise, all knowing, dominating mentor.
Now, seeing the goings on in what passes for a script in Porus, which will undoubtedly be pretty much the same in the follow up serial, I don't see how it matters who is cast as Chanakya, a 6 pack abswala Tarun or someone else. So I don't rejoice at Chetan Pandit quitting, if in fact he has quit. It hardly matters if he stays or goes.
This said, the idea of Tarun as Chanakya makes me shudder. Radhagupt, yes, but Chanakya?
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