Juhi Was To Play Draupadi, Mukesh Khanna Wanted To Play Arjun, Fun Facts About Mahabharata TV Show, 1988

BR Chopra's TV show Mahabharat is back on the small screen after more than 30 years and the 90's kids are reliving and loving this rerun. This was the show of 1988 which catapulted actors like Roopa Ganguly, Mukesh Khanna, Nitish Bharadwaj, famous, making them household names. The show was on air for two years. Here are some really interesting facts that you may not have known about this show starting with why did Juhi Chawla give up the role of Draupadi and why was Mukesh Khanna eyeing Arjun's role.

Yes well, Roopa Ganguly essayed Draupadi eventually but the first choice was Juhi Chawla. She let go of this role for her film debut which was a blockbuster, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, opposite Aamir Khan.

Remember the brothers Nakul and Sahadev? I real life, the actors who essayed the characters Sameer Chitre and Sanjeev Chitre, were actual brothers. They played two of the five Pandavas in Mahabharat.

Actor Nitish Bharadwaj, who essayed Lord Krishna, was in fact interested in other roles. His logic was that he was not experienced enough to play the role. As per reports, he avoided producer BR Chopra's for many days as he didn't want to give the screen test.

Mukesh Khanna, who essayed Bhishma Pitamah, told a media house in an interview that he actually wanted to play Arjun. He said: "BR Chopra sir offered me the role of Duryodhan, but I ended up playing Bhishma. I always had faith in Mahabharat's success. I wanted to play Arjun, but that role was already taken and though I didn't want to play Bhishma I ended up doing it. Now, I feel it was the best role of my career," he said.

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One really cool fact is that the script of the classic show was in fact written by popular Urdu poet-lyricist-dialogue writer Rahi Masoom Raza. The late writer also wrote scripts of popular films like Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki, Disco Dancer and wrote dialogues for Amol Palekar’s Golmaal, Lamhe and Judaai.

In an interview with a media house, Mukesh Khanna once shared that "Rahi Masoom Raza, the writer of the show used to call and praise my acting. But I always told him that it was his writing and our combined effort that did wonders onscreen. We shared a great bonding and rapport.

"He always told me that when he wrote dialogues for me, his pen automatically used to start running, but when it was for some other actor, like Arjun he used to struggle. In fact, I used to get lengthy dialogues and this had upset Firoz Khan who played Arjun. He had reached BR Chopra's house to complain about the same."

In fact, it was after this show that Mukesh Khanna first bought a Maruti car and then a Contessa.

Mukesh Khanna also shared in the interview that earlier, Mahabharat and Ramayan were to be aired together, but later it was decided that Ramayan will be aired first. Reason being thatthe two epic sagas together won't be a good idea.