Epic replay

Siddharth Tewary, producer of Mahabharat on Star Plus, sheds light on the making of the mega series that keeps in mind contemporary times. He informs Divya Kaushik that while the narrative is pure, the characters are presented in a new light

There have been scholarly commentaries, many literary works and numerous theatre and screen interpretations on its characters, episodes and the message that transcends the religious and cultural boundaries. Mahabharat has been the most explored epic, and its characters have been of utmost interest to every generation. Keeping this in mind it's surprising to note that it took almost 25 years to come up with another Mahabharat on small screen. The last and the only TV version we know of is by BR Chopra, which for over two years was an essential part of family Sunday breakfast plan. Finally there is someone who has attempted to break the mould and come up with another Mahabharat on Star Plus. The series which will go on air from September 16, has been worked upon on a mega scale and producer Siddharth Tewary has taken pains to get experts like Bhanu Athaiya to get the costumes right and Devdutt Patnaik has been roped in as the chief consultant to the show.

The research work has been going on for four years and the producer has taken care of every minute fact on the historical epic. On how this Mahabharat will be relevant to contemporary times, the producer says, "Mahabharat is one epic which is open to interpretation and that is why we have so seen so many versions in the literary world at different times. In our series we are not tampering with the storyline but mere narration of the historical record is not our agenda. We looked at how it can have a better impact and found out that we have to present its characters in the new light. Contrary to Ramayana, where every one seems to be so idealistic, characters in Mahabharat come across as human beings with real emotions that range from revenge, love, greed, selfishness. The opening line of the text says a lot, whatever is here, is found elsewhere. But what is not here, is nowhere else.' So if you will notice that its content is relevant to all times and its message is universal, so we don't have to work on that, but to present different aspects of the characters that have remained so far hidden from the public eye. For example, Draupadi is not only about angst and beauty, she was perhaps the strongest woman of her times who knew to speak her mind. It has been a fabulous journey so far. When we started out four years ago we realised that it is not something that can be recreated, you have to stay pure to the narrative and yet make it appear like it's new."

Krishna will be the sutradhaar in this series for the simple reason that "he is the one who is leading the plot and at the same time is the thought behind every plot in Mahabharat. We have imagined things differently and packaged them in a way to have an impact on the audience."

Considering that there has been so much written on Mahabharat already and so much has been culturally produced, today's audience is much more informed and aware. "I completely agree. When you recreate a mythology, one needs to keep in mind that you are meeting an audience with information. We spent a lot of time to understand the nitty-gritties and details of the text. I keep in mind that as a viewer when I watch a certain series, there are so many questions that come to my mind, like how and why did it happen or why so and so did such a thing. So we have tried that our Mahabharat answers all the questions that arise in the viewers' minds while watching the shows. We have tried to understand the subtext of the story and reconstruct it in a way that you tend to see the other side of the characters," says Tewary.

The series features Puneet Issar, who played Duryodhan in Chopra's series, as Parshuram, Pooja Sharma as Draupadi and Ratan Rajput as Amba. "It is a bigger challenge to decide a cast for the serial when people already have pre-conceived notions about them. A lot of time was spent on deciding the cast and all of them have researched well to get into the skin of the character," comments Tewary from Swastik Productions is known for serials like Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo.

The series has been shot in Amber Fort Jaipur, Kashmir, Jabalpur and Ahmedabad. Experts like Bhanu Athaiya were called on board "because she is outstanding and no one can match up her knowledge. I wanted costumes that are traditional but still have a new look. There is a lot of value addition on the series through presence of such experts."