Chitra Banerjee’s international bestseller The Palace of Illusions - Draupadi’s retelling of the Mahabharat - is so popular as feminist literature that Deepika Padukone has put her nascent film producing career behind the idea. Recently released film dramatisations of Indian history – Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat and (even) Tanhaji – raked in over Rs 500 crore each (inflation adjusted) at the box office and were favourably received by audiences across ages. For comparison, this number exceeds the total views on all but three videos on AIB’s viral comedy channel. Nothing can be further from the truth.Ī 7-month-old, fan-made trailer of a Mahabharat movie (with the audacity to cast a Muslim actor – Aamir Khan – as Krishna) has garnered 20 million views on YouTube. Thus, any attempt at a Mahabharat series/trilogy/anthology, no matter how genuine, will fail to impress fickle-minded social media junkies. The premise is that we are far less interested in our mythology and have been captivated by Western ideas. Young India awaitsįirst things first, the simplest argument against a Mahabharat re-hash is a middle-aged uncle’s rebuke of ‘today’s generation’. But it’s 2021 and we’re long overdue for a refresher. That the epic continues to percolate into popular consciousness, despite having no formal representation in the Indian education system, is a testament to India’s strong oral tradition.
#The mahabharata tv series series#
While the series swept television ratings in India, the fact is that it ran over 30 years ago. Almost half of India’s population is less than 25 years old now, which implies that they have had no access to a genuine audio-visual adaptation of this great epic (we will address Ekta Kapoor’s 2013 version in a bit). Chopra’s spirited 94-part television series that aired from 1988 to 1990.
Mahabharat’s last respectable rendition was B.R. If India demands a global position, it must be matched with its cultural power. Turkey’s 2014 drama about the founder of the Ottoman Empire ‘ Ertugrul’ has spread like wildfire across the Islamic world, with none other than Pakistan PM Imran Khan recommending it to his citizens. It’s time for young Indians to be presented with an engaging and persuasive, modern cinematic version of humanity’s longest poem. But what is unclear is how such an elaborate epic gets passed down to us millennials, and why it’s so significant. Most Indians are also familiar with the subplots: Krishna’s politics, Karna’s illegitimacy, Draupadi’s ill-fate in matrimony, and so on. The righteous Pandava brothers spend years in exile to return and re-conquer their kingdom from their villainous cousins, the Kauravas. All Indians know the essential plot of the Mahabharat.
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