The end of January saw the televised version of the eternal love story – Radhakrishn complete 600 episodes.
Radhakrishn, the eternal love story – sacrosanct, sublime yet resonant in today’s time has been part of art, culture, and lore for thousands of years. This epochal love story has transcended time and continues even today to capture people’s minds. This eternal love story unfolded on the small screen more than 2 years back with the creative producer Siddharth Kumar Tewari’s imagination and a detailed novel interpretation. Radhakrishn recently completed 600 episodes on television (Star Bharat channel) and is going ahead with full steam. The cast have been providing the celebration details on social media.
“jag karta hain prem pane ke liye inhone kiya prem sikhane ke liye – Siddharth Kumar Tewari
A happy Siddharth Kumar Tewari said “It has been an exciting journey doing Radhakrishn from the time the thought came to me for telling this epic love story to the people and why RadhaKrishn had this amazing love story on the earth. It had a deeper message. I think we cracked the core thought somehow – “jag karta hain prem pane ke liye inhone kiya prem sikhane ke liye.” So the whole thought behind Radhakrishn was how they taught people ‘what is love’. I think that was the beauty and from there the recreation of that world began.”
Then the journey began on scouting for references for the serial. “We looked at a lot of calendar art. We went to Vrindavan, met people, we saw huge amount of references and I thought I should make this show completely indoors and make it completely in controlled lighting where I thought I could make it the most beautiful show on Indian television. The visuals were amazing. I had to work on people’s imagination and take it to the next level.”
The next step was how to visualise this world that existed once upon a time. “It was a great challenge creatively and to tell a story with so much colour, so much fun and excitement. It was a beautiful experience,” says Siddharth. It was a challenge but Siddharth and his team pulled it off with elan. “I am glad we reached 600 episodes. It feels humbled and excited that people have loved Radhakrishn and the songs have been blockbusters all across the country. So it’s like a great feeling. It’s been the whole teams’ hard work. Every person got together and it’s been like one big family working on this series. We are at it, we are enjoying the creation and continue to do so.”
Siddharth is also thankful to Star Bharat, the channel which has been televising this series. “It’s constantly been number one since the time of launch. It is such a beautiful tale to tell. The youth are enjoying it and we are enjoying making it as well. We will continue to do so. Let us reach more milestones as we go ahead, says Siddharth.
Sumedh as Krishna
The serial’s USP besides the story, costumes, superb visual effects is the stellar acting by the cast – Sumedh Mudgalkar as Krishn, Mallika Singh as Radha and Basant Bhatt as Balram. Siddharth is full of pride when he talks of his cast. “Sumedh is a fabulous actor. When I thought of casting him for this Krishn’s role I could see it in his eyes. I knew somewhere this guy will do justice to this role and he really looked like the character I had in my mind but what Sumedh has done is stupendous. He has taken it to another level. His level of commitment, preparation, the kind of effort he puts in is tremendous. He thinks what he does. He has added too much to it. He has done tremendously well. I am so proud of him. He is a superb human being, most importantly too dedicated to his craft. He tries so hard, it looks effortless but I think he does so much hard work that you feel he is naturally Krishn because he makes it look very natural.”
Mallika Singh as Radha
About Mallika Singh Siddharth says “Mallika is such a beautiful, sweet girl. She is so genuine, pure and innocent. She works very hard get into Radha’s character. I did the pilot with Sumedh more than two years before we started shooting for Radhakrishn. I wanted to cast Mallika. Somehow it didn’t work out and the project got delayed by two years. She went away and did some other work but I got her back for this role even though she was not part of the pilot. I always imagined Radha as her. I am so proud of Sumedh and Mallika. They are so excited even after 600 episodes they put in so much energy every day. Mallika is one of the most hard-working persons, very natural as an actor. She is very genuine as a person and that genuineness comes across, which was needed for the character.”
Basant Bhatt as Balram
On Basant Bhatt, who plays Balram, Siddharth tells us “Basant and I share the same birthday. He is such a sweet guy, he works very hard. We had launched him in Suryaputra Karn. Somehow I loved his performance and his acting. He has played Balaram brilliantly and added so much. All these guys have so much fun on the sets and they make it all look so natural. They are all superb.”
RadhaKrishn is cruising along safely and one hopes to see how the story is unravelled in the future episodes.
