Read: 5 must-watch Indian adaptations of the Mahabharata Govinda and Chunky Panday were signed for the role of Abhimanyu, but they opted out when they bagged films.
“Ramya Krishnan and Roopa were the final names, and we chose Roopa, as her Hindi was good,” he says. Nitish was spotted in an ad made by the Chopras.” He adds that around six actors were shortlisted for the role of Draupadi, including Juhi Chawla, who opted out of the show as she had bagged a film. He recalls, “Puneet had accidentally punched Amitabh Bachchan in Coolie (1983), and was out of work.
MAHABHARAT STAR PLUS CAST ABHIMANYU TV
We conducted the most extensive auditions in the history of TV back then,” says Paintal.
He auditioned over 5,000 actors to choose the perfect cast. He was the show’s associate director, casting director and production designer. Read: Making Bharat Ek Khoj was a great adventure: Shyam BenegalĪpart from playing Shakuni, Paintal also played multiple roles behind the scenes. The cast of the show included Mukesh Khanna as Bhishma, Nitish Bhardwaj as Lord Krishna, Roopa Ganguly as Draupadi, Puneet Issar as Duryodhan, Arjun Firoz Khan as Arjun, Pankaj Dheer as Karna, Gajendra Chauhan as Yudhishthir, Praveen Kumar as Bhim, Girija Shankar as Dhritarashtra, Renuka Israni as Gandhari, Nazneen as Kunti, Surendra Pal as Dronacharya, and Gufi Paintal as Shakuni, among several others. Mahabharat had only 94 episodes, and it got the highest TRPs at that time. The title track of the show, which was sung by veteran playback singer late Mahendra Kapoor, gives TV lovers goosebumps even today. While its script was written by renowned Urdu poet late Rahi Masoom Raza, popular music composer late Raj Kamal worked on its soundtrack. What made Mahabharat so popular was the team that worked on its various aspects. The epic show was produced and directed by late film-maker BR Chopra and his son, late Ravi Chopra. Within weeks of its launch, the TV show became part of many Sunday morning routines. When Mahabharat first went on air in 1988, on Doordarshan, not many people expected it to become this successful.