Overview
Mahabharat is an Indian Hindi-language mythological television series based on the Sanskrit epic of the same name attributed to the sage Vyasa. Produced and directed by Ravi Chopra under the banner of B. R. Films, and presented by his father B. R. Chopra, the series was telecast on the national broadcaster Doordarshan from 2 October 1988 to 24 June 1990. Comprising 94 episodes of approximately 45 minutes each, it was broadcast every Sunday morning and became one of the most widely watched television programmes in Indian history.
Key facts
| Title | Mahabharat |
|---|---|
| Genre | Mythological / Historical drama |
| Based on | The Mahabharata by Vyasa |
| Language | Hindi |
| Producer | B. R. Chopra |
| Director | Ravi Chopra |
| Production company | B. R. Films |
| Original network | Doordarshan (DD National) |
| Original run | 2 October 1988 – 24 June 1990 |
| Episodes | 94 |
| Writer (script and dialogue) | Rahi Masoom Raza |
| Music | Raj Kamal |
| Narrator | Harish Bhimani (as the voice of "Samay" / Time) |
Background and production
The serial was conceived as a televised retelling of the Mahabharata, following the popular response to Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987–88) on Doordarshan. B. R. Chopra, a veteran Hindi film-maker, presented the project, while his son Ravi Chopra directed the episodes. The screenplay and dialogue were written by the noted Urdu-Hindi novelist and lyricist Rahi Masoom Raza, whose script is widely regarded for its literary quality and balanced treatment of religious material.
The title music and background score were composed by Raj Kamal. The series opened with a Sanskrit invocation and used the device of a personified Samay (Time) as narrator, voiced by Harish Bhimani, to link episodes and explain context. Much of the shooting was carried out at studios in Mumbai and at outdoor locations in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, with large-scale battle sequences staged for the Kurukshetra war episodes.
Cast
- Nitish Bhardwaj as Krishna
- Mukesh Khanna as Bhishma
- Roopa Ganguly as Draupadi
- Pankaj Dheer as Karna
- Puneet Issar as Duryodhana
- Gajendra Chauhan as Yudhishthira
- Praveen Kumar Sobti as Bhima
- Arjun (Firoz Khan) as Arjuna
- Sameer Chitre and Sanjeev Chitre as Nakula and Sahadeva
- Girija Shankar as Dhritarashtra
- Renuka Israni as Gandhari
- Nazneen as Kunti
- Goga Kapoor as Shakuni
- Surendra Pal as Dronacharya
Reception and significance
Mahabharat drew extraordinarily high viewership during its original run; contemporary reports indicated that streets and markets in many parts of north and west India would empty out during its Sunday morning telecast. Along with Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan, the serial is credited with establishing the mythological as a major genre on Indian television and with demonstrating Doordarshan's reach across linguistic and regional boundaries.
The presentation of the Bhagavad Gita as part of the Kurukshetra episodes, sung in Sanskrit by Mahendra Kapoor, became particularly well known. Several actors from the series became closely identified with their roles: Nitish Bhardwaj with Krishna, Mukesh Khanna with Bhishma, and Pankaj Dheer with Karna, among others. The serial was later dubbed and exported, and in the mid-1990s an English-dubbed version was telecast by the BBC in the United Kingdom, where it also drew a substantial audience.
Reruns of the series have been broadcast on Doordarshan and other channels in subsequent decades. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Doordarshan re-aired Mahabharat alongside Ramayan, and the rerun again recorded very high viewership figures.
Sequel and related works
B. R. Films followed the series with a sequel, Vishnu Puran, and later produced Mahabharat Katha (1997), a continuation focusing on episodes such as the story of Babruvahana and the Ashvamedha Yagna. The 1988 series remains the most widely referenced television adaptation of the epic, although later versions have been produced, including Star Plus's Mahabharat (2013).