{"id":287521,"date":"2025-04-22T10:25:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T10:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/mahabharat-br-chopra-stood-by-rahi-masoom-raza-when-doordarshan-questioned-how-a-muslim-man-could-write-the-show-its-not-hindu-or-muslim\/"},"modified":"2025-04-22T10:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T10:25:17","slug":"mahabharat-br-chopra-stood-by-rahi-masoom-raza-when-doordarshan-questioned-how-a-muslim-man-could-write-the-show-its-not-hindu-or-muslim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/mahabharat-br-chopra-stood-by-rahi-masoom-raza-when-doordarshan-questioned-how-a-muslim-man-could-write-the-show-its-not-hindu-or-muslim\/","title":{"rendered":"Mahabharat: BR Chopra stood by Rahi Masoom Raza when Doordarshan questioned how a Muslim man could write the show, \u2018It\u2019s not Hindu or Muslim\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mahabharat:<\/div>


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Many years ago, Aamir Khan hinted that he was keen on making Mahabharat for the big screen. It wasn\u2019t even an announcement but it prompted the trolls. The idea that a Muslim man wanted to make an epic that\u2019s sacred for the Hindus was too much for the naysayers. On Tuesday morning, Aamir reiterated his thoughts<\/a> <\/strong>and said that he would want to make multiple films on the epic as the story is so vast that it can\u2019t be summarised in one film. 37 years ago, when BR Chopra made Mahabharat, he faced something similar because he hired a Muslim writer, Rahi Masoom Raza, to write the show.<\/p>\n

BR Chopra was considered to be one of the pioneers of the Indian film industry.<\/a> <\/strong>He started making movies in the 1950s and with films like Naya Daur,<\/a> Waqt<\/a><\/strong>, Dhool Ka Phool among many others under his banner BR Films. It was in the 1980s that Doordarshan approached him to make either Ramayan or Mahabharat as a television show, and he chose to make Mahabharat. \u201cEvery producer dreams of making Mahabharat. I also wanted to make it but I knew that you can\u2019t make it in a three hour film. If you want to make it, you have to make it in a long format, and the only option for that was television,\u201d he shared in the \u2018Making of Mahabharat\u2019. Chopra believed that Mahabharat was a bigger challenge as compared to Ramayan as the latter was the story of what to do, and the former was the story of what not to do. Unlike Ramayan, which was seen as a collection of tales of morality, Mahabharat was perceived as a cautionary tale. This was a complex story that went on for generations and here, most characters weren\u2019t heroes or villains, but had traits of both. So when BR decided to make Mahabharat, he knew that the key was in the writing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\"BR BR Chopra on the set of Mahabharat. (Photo: Express Archive)<\/span><\/p>\n

For the show to work, it was extremely essential that a lay person understood the chronology of events and not lose themselves in the hundreds of characters within the story. After the audience understood the interpersonal relationships, and who could broadly be classified as the \u2018good\u2019 and the \u2018bad\u2019 guys, the show needed something that could hold it all together and when BR found it with Rahi Masoom Raza, he knew this was the man for the job. In the \u2018Making of Mahabharat\u2019, as BR talked about every producer\u2019s lifelong dream of making Mahabharat, he shared that they knew that they needed a narrator for every episode to set context for the events. After much back and forth, when Rahi came up with the now classic lines \u2018Main samay hoon\u2019, and announced that \u2018Samay (Time)\u2019 would be the narrator of every episode, BR said an instant yes. \u201cAll the restrictions that a Muslim man will write a Hindu story\u2026 People think of this as a Hindu story. We don\u2019t think so but anyway\u2026 Everything just went out of the window. The way he wrote it, we signed him,\u201d he said. Rahi knew that he could present this story in a \u201ccontemporary\u201d way and get people to relate to it.<\/p>\n

\n

Story continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

But, as one would have expected, there was strong opposition to Rahi\u2019s inclusion in the writing team. When Doordarshan saw the plan of episodes submitted by BR Films, they were largely satisfied by what they were seeing but they were blunt enough to ask BR Chopra how a Muslim man would write the show. His daughter-in-law Renu, in an earlier appearance on Kapil Sharma\u2019s show, recalled his conversation with Doordarshan and shared, \u201cDad said Mahabharat isn\u2019t Hindu or Muslim, it is the story of every family. There is dispute in every family. Every house should have a Mahabharat so people know what they should not be doing. If Rahi saab is asked to leave, then I will walk out as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | Govinda recalls being thrown out of BR Chopra\u2019s office for refusing Mahabharat; says filmmaker called his mom \u2018mad\u2019: \u2018Bahar nikalo isko\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a 1990 interview with India Today, Rahi opened up about the threats he had received and expressed his shock wondering, \u201cAm I not an Indian?\u201d When asked if \u201cHindu fundamentalist groups\u201d had threatened him, Rahi said, \u201cI\u2019m hurt and amazed at the furore created about a Muslim writing the script. Am I not an Indian? The Vishwa Hindu Parishad did write a letter, to which I replied. They later sent an apology. The threats don\u2019t worry me.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Rahi Masoom Raza created with Mahabharat is still seen as a benchmark in storytelling. The visual effects, the costumes and the aesthetic of the Doordarshan show might be dated but the central storyline, which was simplified by the Rahi so it could be understood by the masses, continues to inspire many, including Aamir Khan<\/a>. It is yet to be seen if Aamir actually gets down to making his Mahabharat because whenever he does so, his films will be compared to what BR Chopra made in 1988.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n \"Sampada <\/figure>\n

<\/a>\n <\/div>\n

\n
\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n \"instagram\"
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n

Sampada Sharma has been the Copy Editor in the entertainment section at Indian Express Online since 2017. … Read More <\/a>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n