Mythology is the flavour of the season. The nationwide lockdown brought back shows like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Shri Krishna, Shri Ganesh, Vishnu Puran and Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev. Initially, 80s mythological shows ruled the roost but gradually new-age counterparts like Siddharth Kumar Tewary's Mahabharat and Mohit Raina-starrer Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev made its way to the ratings chart.
Starring Shaheer Sheikh, Pooja Sharma, Praneet Bhatt, Sourabh Raaj Jain, and many others, Siddharth Kumar Tewary's Mahabharat is currently running on Star Plus. The show that garnered good ratings for the channel during its original run between 2013-14, has again proven to be a steady bet for the channel and is among the top five most-watched shows.
2013's Mahabharat will always be remembered for its grandeur, VFX and great storytelling. Star Plus invested a whopping Rs 100 crore on the show and an additional Rs 20 crores on its marketing. With Omung Kumar as the production designer, the magnum opus had one of the most expensive sets ever made for an Indian mythological show. The outdoor shoots were done at some of the most beautiful locales across India, which included Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, among others.
In an exclusive chat with IndiaToday.in, Siddharth Kumar Tewary, the creator of the series spoke about the show. He said, "For us, it was very clear that this has to be the biggest series India has ever seen. It was the biggest series ever produced in India and it was quite a blessing to make that series. It feels really good that even after seven years, it's still the number one series across Hindi GEC. It humbles me that people liked my work."
The show brought together some of the most acclaimed talents in the country like Salim Khan, who was the creative consultant, Oscar-winner Bhanu Athaiya for costume, Ajay Atul and Ismail Darbar for music and Omung Kumar for sets.
Tewary also shared how he got Oscar-winner Bhanu Athaiya on board to design the costumes for the show. "I had the best of the technical team. Costume-wise we had the legendary Bhanu Athaiya, who won an Oscar for Gandhi. It took me close to five years to get the show on air. We started working on it at the end of 2008 and it was finally aired in 2013. I wanted a distinguished look and I tried a lot of people. Eventually, I went to meet Bhanu ji, she was really old. She was not able to sketch herself. so I requested her to share her ideas and tell the artistes what to do and other costume stylists would sketch it out and show it to her. That's how I got her on board and she really created a distinguished look for the series," he added.
As a creator, for Siddarth Kumar Tewary, the most difficult aspect was to transport people to Mahabharat era. "For me, the most important thing is to make people believe that this is happening in that era. I wanted to transport the viewers to that era. Every aspect of the show was equally important because I wanted the viewers to believe that this is happening at that time. The most difficult part for me was to get people to believe that this is not today," said Tewary.
Star invested an additional sum of Rs 20 crore on promotions and marketing of the epic show. In 2013, the channel had set up Mahabharat museums at shopping malls in eight cities of India. In these museums, people could catch a glimpse of the jewellery, costumes and weapons that were used by the characters on the show. And could also get a virtual tour to the sets of the Mahabharat. For smaller towns, there were museums on wheels.
Mahabharat re-run began from March 30 on Star Plus and is currently one of the most-watched shows across India.
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