Mahabharat (2013 TV series)

Plot

Mahabharat presents the story of the throne of Hastinapur, the kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan where the Kauravas and the Pandavas brothers compete for rulership. Both Duryodhan and Yudhisthir claim to be first in line to inherit the throne. Duryodhan, younger than Yudhisthir, the eldest Pandav.

Kunti obtained a boon from sage Durvasa, where she could invoke any deity and could bear his child. Out of curiosity, she decided to test the boon and uttered the mantra calling upon the Sun god and was handed a baby, Karna. Kunti, an unwed mother, set Karn afloat on the river Ganga with a heavy heart, in order to avoid the embarrassment of having a child before marriage. After her marriage to Pandu, Kunti invoked other deities and had her sons, Yudhishtir, Bhim, Arjun, Nakul and Sahadev(from Madri). Neither Karn, nor the Pandavas knew the true identity of Karn until the end of the Kurukshetra War. Karn fought against misfortune throughout his life, and was often ill-treated as he was the son of a charioteer.(Adirath, a charioteer and his wife Radha found Karna on the banks of river Ganga and raised him as their own.) Duryodhan, the mortal enemy of the Pandavas was the only person who supported Karn, even when the Pandava brothers insulted him for being a skilled archer while belonging to a lower caste. Thus Karn made a vow to protect Duryodhan throughout his lifetime and fought on his behalf against the Pandavas in the Kurukshetra War.

When Bhishma asked for Gandhari's hand in marriage for his blind nephew Dhritarashtra, her brother Shakuni got furious. But he later agreed when Bhishma persuaded them that Dhritrashtra would be the future king of Hastinapur. During the Coronation Ceremony; Dhritrashtra's younger brother Pandu was made the king with the high interfluence of Vidura(Dhritrashtra's another younger brother).

Shakuni felt that he was cheated and so he swore to himself that he would destroy the Kuru race. He sowed the seeds of the climactic battle during the adolescence of the Kauravas(Sons of Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas(Sons of Pandu) by poisoning the mind of Duryodhan; the eldest Kaurav against the Pandavas.

This results in the Kurukshetra War where Shri Krishna imparts Bhagwad Gita to his Pandav cousin Arjuna. The battle saw the deaths of Bhishma, Karna among many. All the sons of Dhritarashtra and Gandhari, died in the war.

Cast

Production and promotion

Star spent ₹100 crore (US$15 million) on the project and spent another ₹20 crore (US$3.0 million) on marketing the show, making it India's most expensive TV series.

According to producer Siddharth Kumar Tiwary the Draupadi cheer haran (disrobing) sequence, which Tiwary directed, took twenty days to shoot.

Reception and impact

Writing for Rediff, Nishi Tiwari wrote that "If it maintains the quality of writing and able actors who portray key characters, we may have another winner among us". DNA praised the costumes, scenery, Krishna's flute theme which was given by Raj Mohan Sinha, and most of the CGI special effects, but said the story pace was too fast.

Its premier had a viewership of approximately 8.4 million people. The show has become the highest rated weekday mythology show in the last three years on Indian television.

The viewership ratings of the week of 1 December 2013 reached 9,801 TVTs. The game of dice leading to Draupadi's 'cheer haran' took Mahabharat at its peak viewership(10TVTs.4 TVM) and helped the broadcasting channel Star Plus clock the highest GTVMs ever achieved by any channel in Indian Television History.

It won the trophy for the Best Drama in Star Guild Awards 2013 as well as number of accolades in other award shows. It won the Indian Telly Awards for Actor in a Supporting Role (Drama) , given to Aham Sharma for his portrayal as Karna , and Actor in a Negative Role to Praneet Bhat in 2014 . The crew members also won the awards for Best Costumes for a TV Programme, Best Make – Up Artist , and Best Stylist. .

It has been dubbed to other languages including Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Malayalam , Tamil and Telugu.

In Indonesia, the drama was broadcast on antv dubbed in Indonesian in March 2014. The casts of Mahabharat, were invited to hold a fan meeting tour at Jakarta and Bali. The Times of India reported in 2014 that the show has a huge fan following abroad and as result, the prominent characters from the show had been called to Indonesia for a special event. The main casts of Mahabharat, performed on "Mahabharat Show: Fan Meeting Tour" in the year 2014 .

As from 6 December 2015, the show starts airing in its original version and subtitled in English on MBC Digital 4 every Sunday in Mauritius.

In Thailand, the drama was broadcast on Channel 5 dubbed in Thai starting January 2, 2016.