Viewers can learn a lot from Mahabharat: Producer Siddharth Kumar Tewary

Swastik Productions’ Mahabharat has been getting respectable ratings of about 3+, and the makers now stress on the fact that their ratings will surely see an upswing, with the main track of Draupadi kick-starting with her birth. As reported earlier, Draupadi will be born out of fire in the episode to be aired on 10 January 2014. In a conversation with Tellychakkar.com, Producer Siddharth Kumar Tewary talks of the outcomes of the year gone by, and the goals he has set for the year 2014 with respect to his magnum-opus show. “The year 2013 has indeed been difficult with the launch of Mahabharat. Having said this, the past year has been great and it has been an honour to make a show on television on a completely different scale and level. We are pretty confident of the numbers growing this year. We begin the new year with the introduction of the main track of Draupadi.” Talking further on the track of Draupadi, the Producer said, “Draupadi’s story is very interesting and we will again be exploring the never-seen-before aspect of the life of Draupadi. The interesting aspect about her is that she emerged out of fire and never got through the childhood phase of her life. The manner in which Draupadi will go on to realize the uniqueness attached to her birth, the reason for which she was born, the manner in which she will meet Krishna and their bonding will be something special for viewers to watch. This role of Draupadi is again very challenging because the girl is born as a grown-up directly.” Ask him whether he has been satisfied with the present numbers, and he explains, “We have been working very hard on the show. Having said this, the numbers are not in my hands. My aim is to do my work with utmost sincerity and purity. The outcome that we have got so far is great and we have succeeded in generating viewers’ interest. And the best part for us is that the main track of Draupadi is yet to come in. We are sure that the ratings will take to a new high with the new storyline. As of now, our ratings are very respectable and we are hoping for the best.” On casting a rank newcomer in Delhiite Pooja Sharma as Draupadi, Tewary emphasized, “My philosophy in life is to cast people who can play the said role to the ‘T’. That is the reason why it was extremely difficult in casting characters like Krishna, Shakuni, Draupadi. After going through an extensive casting process for all the characters, we finally got down to casting the character of Draupadi. So you can say that she was the last person to be cast. After auditioning in various parts of India, we wanted to exhaust all options so that we do not miss out on a fresh face who had the fire to perform this character. And when we saw Pooja, we saw a sparkle in her eyes – self-respect that was very much required to play Draupadi. The best part about Pooja was that she was more than willing to work on herself, that too in the limited time that she got. While all other actors had ample time on their hand to get trained to play their characters, Pooja got very less time compared to the standards of a show like Mahabharat. However, she gave her level best and got better over the time of 3-4 months. Even on sets, she worked on the aspects of acting, in addition to looking good on screen. Pooja has the right balance between looking arrogant and confident. Overall, I would say that she has the hunger in her to do a good job, has a great look and is dedicated too.” And on the big learning that Mahabharat on the whole can give today’s generation, the Producer stressed on the fact that, “There’s a lot for the viewers to learn from this epic. At every point in the story, one needs to understand why a particular situation has come across. I believe from the bottom of my heart that understanding and learning Mahabharat will bring in positivity and this is one of the reasons why I am making it. Mahabharat is a biggest source material from where you can learn from, and this is the primary reason why one should follow Mahabharat.” We hope Mahabharat gets all the success in the New Year.