

Jayshree Gadkar and Bal Dhuri who play the role of Kaushalya and King Dasharath were a real-life couple and well known Marathi film actors. The production team would visit nearby villages and make announcements on drums to recruit junior artists. Originally meant to have only 52 episodes, the story ended in 78 episodes. Ramayan was the most expensive show during those days. The shooting cost of each episode came to 900,000 INR. The iconic scenes of the construction of the Ram Setu (a mythical bridge between India and Sri Lanka) were shot in Chennai, Tamil Nadu to shoot clear blue waters.

Many people actually prayed (Aarti) when the episodes aired.Ī set was built at Umargaon, a small town of Gujarat to shoot the show. People bought television sets to watch the show. The roads would be deserted when Ramayan was aired on television. It was telecast in 55 countries with a total viewership of 650 million. It holds the Limca book of world record as the most-watched mythological serial.
Mahabharata tv series serial#
The serial was based on Valmiki’s Ramayan and Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas. In the 80s, Ramayan was produced and directed by Ramanand Sagar and Mahabharat was produced by B R Chopra and directed by his son Ravi Chopra. Ramayan series follows the journey of an Indian king Rama who goes to an exile of 14 years along with wife Sita and brother Lakshman, while Mahabharata, another Indian epic, in its televised series covers the incidents revolving around Lord Krishna, Pandavas, Kauravas, Karna and Draupadi. Little did anyone know the reruns of Ramayana and Mahabharata will enjoy unprecedented popularity.

More than 15,000 people had shown interest in playing different roles in the Mahabharat TV show.Īfter screening 1500 of them were shortlisted by the casting department and called for video screen tests. He has also written scripts for hit Bollywood movies such as Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki, Mili and Lamhe. Renowned Urdu poet, Late Rahi Masoom Raza wrote the script of the series.
Mahabharata tv series series#
BR Chopra’s team submitted the final storyline of the Mahabharat TV series to Doordarshan in 1986 with a breakdown of all 104 episodes. He considered that role to be played by legends like Dilip Kumar and NT Rama Rao, but Dr Rahi Masoom Reza persuaded him to have “Samay” or the narrator’s time when he said the phrase “Main Samay Hoon” or “I am the Time”. BR Chopra wanted a strong narrator for Mahabharat.

The total cost of making the TV series was Rs 9 crore. Satish Bhatnagar and his team, who did research for Mahabharat TV series, studied all available books in different languages on Mahabharat.
