Genre Historical drama Developed by Ekta Kapoor | Created by Ekta Kapoor | |
 | ||
Written by Story and Screenplay
R M Joshi
Binita Desai
Manish Paliwal
Kirtida Gautam
Neha Panjwani
Mayuri Roy Chaudhary
Ankush Nagpal
Dialogues
Dheeraj Sarna
Research, lyrics and consultant
Dr. Bodhisattva Directed by Santram Varma, Ranjan Singh, Vicky Chauhan Creative director(s) Shaalu
Priya Satish Sahni
Mohammed Adil | ||
Jodha Akbar is an Indian historical drama aired on Zee TV. The series premiered on 18 June 2013 and was aired in the evenings from Monday to Friday at 8 pm. The show was produced by Ekta Kapoor under her brand name Balaji Telefilms. It stars Rajat Tokas and Paridhi Sharma in lead roles. Due to leading actress Paridhi Sharma's contract expiring soon, the show went off air shortly. Currently the show is being aired on Zee Anmol and Omni Television. Despite having been off-air for over a year, the show's re-runs still managed to deliver stellar TRP ratings.
Contents
Plot summary
Jodha Akbar is an epic drama about a sixteenth century story of the political marriage of convenience between a Mughal emperor Akbar and a Rajput princess Jodha Bai. The show focuses on how their political marriage brings love between them to an extent that it changed the fate of India. This period drama also portrays the wars of that time along with the relations between the Mughals and the Rajputs. The drama also focuses on the functioning of the queens, the courts, courtesans, the ministers and their influence on the love story of Akbar and Jodha Bai. The show also highlights on how Mughal emperor Jalaluddin acquires the title of Akbar from the people.
Historical accuracy
Many of the events portrayed in the series are based on real events. Certain Rajput groups claimed Jodhaa was married to Akbar's son, Jahangir, not Akbar whereas certain reports stated that Jodha and Akbar were not married. They also protested against the show along with Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap, another historical series that aired on Sony TV. The title of the series was criticised by members of the Rajput community as misleading, politically motivated historical revisionism that minimised Rajput history. The community's protests against the series in Rajasthan, and alleged that if the name is not changed they will not let any Balaji Telefilms films to be released in the state. Ekta Kapoor stated, "I always believe it's 20% history and 80% folklore."
Production
The producer of the show, Ekta Kapoor was influenced by the 2009 big screen movie, Jodhaa Akbar, directed by Bollywood's Ashutosh Gowariker.
Rajat Tokas who had earlier worked with Ekta Kapoor in the soap opera, Tere Liye was selected to play the role of the protagonist Akbar
Ekta Kapoor stated she conducted 7000 auditions for the female protagonist Jodha across the nation before selecting Paridhi Sharma.
Ashwini Kalsekar was selected to play the role of Maham Anga, Akbar's primary caretaker and protector.