Lord of the Epics

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  [MONDAY, JULY 04, 2005 10:56:55 AM]
Nona Walia



The Mahabharata. Hindu mythology's greatest epic might just become Bollywood's biggest ever cinematic venture. The magic of this powerful epic is currently being recreated by producer Bobby Bedi into a trilogy with a budget of Rs 300 crore.

"The trilogy will capture the battles, intrigues, spiritual complexity and cultural aesthetics of India, 4,000 years ago. This will be my big project for the next three years," says Bedi, adding that he discovered the power of the Mahabharata's storyline after reading Girish Karnad's script for Agnivarsha.

What will bring the superstar touch to the Mahabharata is the cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan (together on the screen for the first time) and Rani Mukherji.

"While Rani will play Draupadi, Shah Rukh and Aamir will play Karan and Arjun, but I can't reveal who's who. I hope to make a historic movie series in the manner of The Lord Of The Rings.

My Mahabharata will have the same imagination, special effects and creativity of Peter Jackson's trilogy.

In fact, we've asked The Lord Of The Rings' team to work with us on this project. Mani Ratnam will direct the trilogy, which will roll soon," says Bedi,the chairman of CII's entertainment committee.

Bedi plans to take India's most ancient story to Gen Now across the globe. "I want American, British, Japanese and Indian kids to watch the movie and understand the significance of the Mahabharata.

Telling this dramatic story will be a big challenge. Imagine something similar to Harry Potter and The Lord Of The Rings that's the canvas I'm thinking of. To be able to make something of that magnitude, we need space. The sets of the movie will span 18 acres in Haryana or the foothills of Punjab.

Designer JJ Valaya will work on the clothes, he'll drape all the characters remember, everybody in that era wore clothes without stitches. I've asked Sufi musician Madan Gopal to do research on the sights and sounds of that period. Besides, I have asked artist Manjit Bawa to think of the visuals, what the houses and temples of the Mahabharata period should look like," informs Bedi.

Anyone in here know about this awesome story currently in production ?

From Times of India

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ltd/msid-1159352.cms



Anyone knows when this production will be completed ?

Does this mean that we have to wait for three years ? Ohh No! I can't wait that long

Yeah wtf is with sharuk khan looking like legalos anyway?

Yeah that picture does look a lil photoshopped.

Which old ones are you talking about ? I've only seen the old Indian TV series which took like months if not years to finish. That adaptation was great but too long and a bit outdated for today's standard but then again, it wasn't meant to be a movies or a trilogy.

This upcoming one is supposed to be a trilogy and according to the news, the production team will hire the same team as the one who did LOTR trilogy. 

I heard about the old one from my friend, he recommended it.  Is it based off of the Bhagavad Gitas?

^Bhagavad Gita is a part of the Mahabharat

The old one was good but it was a TV series, so you must sit and watch it for hundreds of hours the series spanned for hundreds of episodes.

Now, the new trilogy in the making is movies, with movie budget, movie quality, movie visual effect (if the article is correct, they will hire LOTR team). I am beyond excited to hear it, because eventhough I'm not Indian, Mahabharata is one of my favorite stories of all time. I read the comic version when I was in elementary school.

Mahabharta has an intense storyline that can easily outshine LOTR....as long as its utilized properly and given the same amount of "hype" that LOTR had.....

it would be good, if there was no shah rukh khan in it. I think Amir Khan is a must, but no shah rukh khan. I want real actors, and I don't consider shah rukh to be one. Aamir khan is a real actor, irfan khan awesome actor, mani ratnam an excellent director,  nana patekar another awesome actor, nassuriden shah another awesome actor.

Bascially, i hope that all the actors involved are completely dedicated to this movie, and not doing something else, and not a low budjet like Asoka! And plz no songs!

If they cast any Muslims as actors, it will probably be in secondary roles.  In the original Mahabharat, Kunti was played by a Muslim lady, so its quite possible that they will get some Muslim actors for this movie too, but they will all be in secondary and or human roles (So no Muslims will play Krishna, Arjun, etc.). 

The only exception to this is if this is an international production, at which time the actor will probably be from numerous backgrounds.....

I've read the Gitas, its just that I do not know what the Mahabharat is.  Is the Gitas the Mahabharat?  Or is the Gitas a small piece of the Mahabhrat?  Or are they just the same things under different names?

Also, Salman wanted to do Ramayna on the lines of Gladiator but VHP threatened him if he acted as Ram, so the movie was shelved for the time being.

Thanks for explaining that.

What books are in the Mahabharat because I have only read the Gitas.

As for Muslims, I just mentioned it because it is a common thing in Bollywood.  I do agree though, I think it would be better for a Hindu to play this because he would probably have more passion since this is his belief and it would show in the acting.

One more thing, PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE AMITABH IN THIS!  He is in every movie that comes out!

Karmaji, are you hindu bhai?  Seeing that you used to know, thats why I am asking   Also, sukran for looking it up!

As for Rani, bah have you seen Bunti aur Babli?    Seriously though, I wouldn't be surprised if they had Amitabh play Krishna.

Bhai in terms of friends.  I'll just say dost then 

The reason I said Amitabh is because he always get those types of roles where he is the head, not necessarily the main character but the one that is productive to the story line.

Speaking of Amitabh, if they intend to make this a huge flick, he might call his good ol son Abhishek to play Arjun lol.

Get back to ya project mate, get that out of the way first.

I personally do not like to call friends or just people I meet of the same age "yaar" even though it aint bad, but I try to stay away from slang, and when I actually speak Hindi I address it in "Ap" and nothing more.  I guess since I had to learn it on my own and with my friends that its better to just keep my mindset on "Ap", even though I know the other words but just to be respectful in case, if you know what I mean.

As for Arjun, ya he would look good in it, that is so right.  He's gonna get ripped like he was in Asambhav.

Anywho, good luck on your testings mera dost.

To kkdkckrl: Hahah yeah. But i thought he was just using slang. I know a guy who
says bhai after every sentence.

Aap is good, its formal. But i only use it when i speak to strangers
or people who are older than me. So you can speak some hindi? Do you find it
easy to learn?

Yep and he has the same name, so he just gotta get the part =p

Yeah i finished it, and gave it to my teacher just now. Im such a good student 0=)

Yup I know about Ap being formal, that's why I use it.  I never use Tu at all, not even to friends, so you can see why I wouldn't use Yaar.  I can speak some Hindi and I knew a lot more awhile back but then I stopped studying and since my Paki friends left, and I only got like 4 to 5 now and I only see 1 majority of the time, we don't speak Urdu/Hindi no more.  I have gotten them confused when I used words like "Parivar" and such since that isn't in Urdu, so they corrected me.

It's pretty easy to learn when you have friends speaking it, watched in movies, and teach yourself when in class.  I focus more on the words though, not actual "tense" and conjugations since they get confusing especially since I barely have friends here to talk with.

Good luck on your project vidyarthi!

[color=purple]Wow but thats really formal yaar! But if you're used to it
Hindi and Urdu really look a like so i can understand the confusion sometimes...

Uh-huh true! Y'know, my parents dont actually speak hindi but they speak what we
call hindustani. Its quite different with hindi. So ive learned hindi myself. Quite
funny, cuz if my parents speak hindustani i always reply in hindi, cuz i dont know
hindustani... well at least not the structure of sentences and stuff...

Thanks!  BTW, whats the difference between Hindi and Hindustani.  I always thought Hindustani in Hindi just meant "Indian"?

Is Hindustani even a real dialect or is it just slang or something that the people in the Netherlands made up?  Do they speak this in Hindustan?