Research and characterization has to be the soul of any mytho - Nitish Bharadwaj

Veteran film and TV actor Nitish Bharadwaj, better known as Krishna of B. R. Chopra’s Mahabharat is now all set to direct his first Marathi film 'Pitruroon' which stars Tanuja and Sachin Khedekar. Tellychakkar.com caught up with Nitish who has also acted in other mytho shows such as Vishnu Puran and quizzed him about this genre getting into the limelight all over again. “Mythology was and is still the safest bet. Cinema was started in India with Raja Harishchandra which was based on Satyug. Similarly when dram started, it debuted with topics from myth. Hence when TV started, makers obviously took the same genre (Ramayan and Mahabharat) as the chances of going wrong are very less, for you get an instant connect with the audiences.” Coming to today’s mytho offerings, Nitish is impressed by both Devon Ke Dev.. Mahadev (Life OK) and Buddha (Zee TV and Doordarshan). “They are both so well- made and have evolved. Here I wish to point out that after many years I have seen a good Shiva on the idiot box. Mohit Raina looks great in his Godly avatar. Over the time producers are making better use of technology (graphics and visual effects), and channels are proving good budgets as they are able to market the products better.” So what is your take on the new Mahabharat which airs on Star Plus? “I have not been able to watch it, as I have been busy with my film. I would want to reserve my comments. But yes I had seen a few earlier episodes about Ekta Kapoor’s Mahabharat (9X) which shut down in a jiffy. I guess it failed due to lack of research. You opened the show with Ved Vyas running helter-skelter which was wrong, for he was the second Krishna and because he was so detached that he was given permission to write the Mahabharat. It was belittling his great character.” “I think the problem happens when you try to apply the daily soap logic to a mytho, for these well defined characters are already etched in people’s minds. When we first did Mahabharat back in the late eighties, we did not have technology to help us; we fired arrows in real time. To make up for loss of visual effects, we concentrated a lot on characterization and screen play. In Ekta’s version it went totally opposite; they went berserk on six abs of the actors and lighting etc. However I wish to stress that this failure was more on Ekta’s team than her, for she is known to give a free hand to them to get their research correct. One more example of falling back to drama was the sequence of vastraharan. You want to show the insult to womanhood, you just show a woman screaming and major important characters like Karan who’s high point was not shown.” “I have seen the promos and hoardings of the new avatar; the gada (mace) of Duryodhana seems nice and ornate, but I just hope that have again not compromised on research and characterization which has to be the soul of any mytho." Well said, Nitish!!!