The renowned filmmaker SS Rajamouli recently opened up about his long-held desire to make a movie based on the Indian epic Mahabharat. The director, who has been riding high on the huge successes of his movies, RRR and Baahubali, has previously referred to it as his dream project.
However, now he has disclosed at an event that if given the opportunity to make a film on the classic, he would like to split it into 10 parts in order to truly do justice to it. Furthermore, he emphasised that he wants to make it for himself more than anything else.
“If I get to the point of making Mahabharat, it would take me a year just to read the versions of Mahabharat. At present, I can only assume that it would be a 10-part film,” he shared while speaking with his brother-in-law Dr AV Guruva Reddy.
“Every film I make, I feel that I’m learning something to ultimately make Mahabharat. So that’s my dream and every step is towards that,” he remarked while referring to it as the aim of his life.
SS RAJAMOULI about MAHABHARAT
— Cinema Circuit (@Cinema_Circuit) May 9, 2023
? It will be in "10 Parts"
?That's the "AIM OF MY LIFE" ❤️
?My every film is a stepping stop towards that.
?I make Mahabharat For "MYSELF" #SSRajamouli #Mahabharat pic.twitter.com/jn71t7c3BS
Rajamouli stated that he would put his own spin on the original. He also mentioned that he wouldn’t begin casting until he had finished writing the script. “I know people have made lists of who should play who in the project. But I will decide my characters only after I write my version of Mahabharata,” he pronounced in an interaction with a news channel.
When asked about Mahabharat, he responded, “The characters that I write for my Mahabharat will not be the same as you’ve seen or read before. I will tell Mahabharat in my own way. Mahabharat (story) will be the same, but the characters will be enhanced and the inter-relationships between the characters will be added.”
Mahabharat was first turned into a TV show in 1988. The original airing consisted of a total of 94 episodes and was broadcasted from 2 October 1988 to 24 June 1990 on Doordarshan. It was produced by B. R. Chopra and directed by his son, Ravi Chopra. It featured an ensemble cast including Nitish Bharadwaj, Mukesh Khanna, Roopa Ganguly, Puneet Issar, and Pankaj Deer among others in the lead and supporting roles. Mahabharat became one of the most successful television series in Indian television history.
Mahabharat was recreated and broadcast on Star Plus in 2013 by television producer and director Siddharth Kumar Tewary. It consisted of 267 episodes ad ran from 16 September 2013 to 16 August 2014.
It is regarded as the costliest series ever launched by the channel and one of the costliest Indian television programs, being the first Indian television show to be made on a budget of more than ₹100 crores.
Saurabh Raaj Jain, Shaheer Sheikh, Pooja Sharma, Aham Sharma, and Arpit Ranka were among the lead cast members. The show became extremely popular and topped TRP (Target Rating Point) charts throughout its run. It also earned a huge fan following abroad and as a result, the prominent characters from the show had been called to Indonesia for a special event.
Watch the entire interview below:
