Mahabharat (1988 TV series)

Mahabharat
Genre	Epic
Created by	B. R. Chopra
Based on	Mahabharata by Vyasa
Written by	Pandit Narendra Sharma Rahi Masoom Raza
Screenplay by	Rahi Masoom Raza
Directed by	B. R. Chopra Ravi Chopra
Creative director	Yashwant Mahilwar
Starring	Nitish Bharadwaj Pankaj Dheer Mukesh Khanna Puneet Issar Roopa Ganguly Praveen Kumar Gajendra Chauhan Gufi Paintal
Narrated by	Harish Bhimani
Composer	Raj Kamal
Country of origin	India
Original language	Hindi
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	94
Production
Executive producer	D.H. Vengurlekar
Producer	B. R. Chopra
Cinematography	Dharam Chopra
Editors	Shailendra Doke Birpal Singh
Running time	40-45 minutes
Production company	B.R. Films
Original release
Network	DD National
Release	2 October 1988 (1988-10-02) – 24 June 1990 (1990-06-24)[1]
Related
Mahabharat Katha
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Mahabharat is an Indian Hindi-language epic television series based on the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. The original airing consisted of a total of 94 episodes^[2] and were broadcast from 2 October 1988 to 24 June 1990 on Doordarshan.^[3][4][5] It was produced by B. R. Chopra and directed by his son, Ravi Chopra.^[6] The music was composed by Raj Kamal. The script was written by Pandit Narendra Sharma and the Hindi/Urdu poet Rahi Masoom Raza, based on the epic by Vyasa. Costumes for the series were provided by Maganlal Dresswala.^[7] The serial claims to have used the Critical Edition of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute as its basic source with Vishnu Sitaram Sukthankar and Shripad Krishna Belwalkar as its primary editor.

Each episode is 40–46 minutes long and begins with a title song that consisted of lyrical content and two verses from the Bhagavad Gita.^[8] The title song was sung and the verses rendered by singer Mahendra Kapoor. The title song is followed by a narration by Indian voice-artist Harish Bhimani as a personification of Time, detailing the current circumstances and highlighting the spiritual significance of the content of the episodes^[9]

Mahabharat Katha, another part of the serial was aired on 1997 which covers stories of post Mahabharata war like Karna's marriage with Padmavati and birth of Vrishaketu , and stories about Ghatotkacha, Barbarika, Vrishaketu, Babruvahana, conspiracies of Viprachitti, Ashwamedha Yajna, Dushala's story and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, which are not covered in the original series.^{[citation needed]}