I was told to call back my mother who told me that Gufi Paintal had called up, saying they wanted to screen test you for Krishna. In those days, we used to go for outdoor shoots and would get messages only via landlines when we used to come back to the hotel. Opening up about how he dodged the makers for several days, Nitish said, “I was shooting for my second Marathi feature film in Kolhapur. Watch: Nitish Bharadwaj explains Mahabharata’s relevance in present timesĭays went by and again he was approached for a role in Mahabharat – this time for the lead character of Lord Krishna. He said ‘okay, we will think about it when the time comes’.” I told him that I wanted to play Abhimanyu. Before pack-up, he asked me what I really wanted to do. 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. He said, “He was convincing me whole day to do Nakul and Sahdev. The actor, who was doing Marathi and Hindi films in those days, shared his conversation with BR Chopra. Nitish again got an opportunity to be a part of Mahabharat when he was offered the role of Nakul and Sahdev but he turned it down as he wanted to play Abhimanyu instead. After that, I was jobless as far as Mahabharata was concerned.” Nitish Bharadwaj shares some interesting trivia about Mahabharat. After a few episodes, Vidur is going to be an old man. He asked me to wait till he finished his lunch. I went inside to meet Ravi ji (Ravi Chopra), we had already done two ad films together and knew each other. He said ‘look at me, I am even wearing the costume and going to give my shot’. I said, ‘How can you play Vidur? They have called me for the shoot’. When I was in the makeup room, Virendra Razdan came up in costume and said he was playing Vidur. Sharing the entire incident, Nitish told Hindustan Times in an interview, “When I was first cast as Vidur, I was called to the Seth studios for the shooting. The actor came to know about the change in cast only when he bumped into the actor who was the final choice to play Vidur.
Much before he was cast as Krishna, Nitish was offered the role of Vidur but the idea was dropped soon after. However, the actor has revealed he wasn’t confident of playing such an important character and dodged director BR Chopra for weeks to avoid giving the screen test.
Mahabharat is back on television screens and so is Nitish Bharadwaj as Krishna, almost three decades after he shot for the show.