With a surge of 90s shows coming back to entertain audience during the coronavirus lockdown, viewers are dabbling in a surge of nostalgia. Mahabharata has joined TV shows like Ramayan, CID, Shaktimaan, and Hum Paanch to return to our TV screens. Viewers who have watched the show will remember Nitish Bharadwaj playing the role of Krishna in Mahabharata with fondness. However, the actor had initially refused to take up the role at all.
Nitish Bharadwaj Was Offered The Role Of Vidur
Nitish Bharadwaj shared in an interview with Hindustan Times that he was initially offered the role of Vidur in the show, However, the idea was soon dropped as it wasn’t an age appropriate character for the actor since Nitish was in his twenties during the time. This wasn’t the end of his stint with Mahabharata.
He was offered the role of Nakul and Sahdev next. The actor declined the role as he wanted to play Abhimanyu instead. Nitish revealed his conversation with BR Chopra on the topic. He said, “He was convincing me whole day to do Nakul and Sahdev. I was convincing him throughout the day that I don’t want to do Nakul and Sahdev because I knew Mahabharata story and wanted to do something better. Before pack-up, he asked me what I really wanted to do. I told him that I wanted to play Abhimanyu. He said ‘okay, we will think about it when the time comes’.”
While his wish to play Abhimanyu never panned out, Nitish Bharadwaj was again approached for the role of Krishna in Mahabharata. The actor admitted that he dodged giving a straight answer for days. He wasn’t confident about taking up such an important role. However, Nitish eventually bumped into BR Chopra.
“He got to know that I was there. He asked me ‘what is your problem, I am calling you for screen test, why are you avoiding?’ I told him ‘You need a more experienced person, how can you have a new person playing the mahanayak (Krishna)’. He said ‘you always wanted to play a good role, at least appear for the screen test’.”
The rest as they say is history. Nitish Bharadwaj went on to play the role of Krishna in Mahabharata and won the hearts of the viewers.