Actor Nitish Bharadwaj, forever remembered as Lord Krishna in B.R. Chopra’s Mahabharat, has paid a heartfelt tribute to his late co-star Pankaj Dheer, who passed away yesterday at the age of 68 after a battle with Cancer. He played the mighty warrior Karna in the epic series.
Bharadwaj recalled that while many perceived Dheer as a calm and serious presence, the truth was quite the opposite. “He was a livewire. He was the jaan off the screen, you know, on the set. His sense of humour was so good — he would crack jokes all the time. All the time. He was not the quiet type at all,” he said fondly.
The actor went on to describe Dheer as a man of rare honesty and straightforwardness. “He was a very straightforward man. In the industry, it is very difficult to find people like that. And I would say he fitted the bill for Karna not only because of his looks but because he was himself a very straightforward man. That’s why he could understand the character so well.”
Reflecting on Karna’s nature, Bharadwaj drew an interesting parallel between Dheer’s role and Hindi cinema’s archetypal hero. “Karna had only two aspects to his life. Firstly, let me put it this way — he’s the first angry young man of Indian heritage’s pantheon of heroes. He’s the first angry young man. Probably the angry young man of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan, was based on Karna. Like if you see Trishul, Sanjeev Kumar dumps Mr. Bachchan, who was Karna.”
He added that Dheer portrayed the internal conflicts of Karna beautifully — the search for identity and the pain of being misunderstood. “Karna’s character had two aspects. One is, who am I? The quest for life, the search for identity is number one. And the second thing is when, at the most crucial junction where Krishna puts Karna into that dilemma about his identity, then the anger starts — the anger of being used. Krishna also tells him how he’s being used, even by Duryodhana. So, isn’t it better to be used by your own people than be used by a man who is an immoral man? All these dilemmas defined him.”
Bharadwaj fondly remembered the emotionally charged scene where Krishna reveals Karna’s true parentage, calling it the “core” of the entire series. “After the Shantidoot speech, Krishna takes him to an Upavana, to a garden, and tells him who he is. Pankaj Dheer was unable to understand and express the exact feeling that Ravi Chopra ji wanted. From Krishna’s perspective, to delicately tell Karna at that crucial time that he was not a Kaurav — and to do it in a way that would draw him towards the Pandavas — was a challenge. Karna plunges into a sea of emotions, and Krishna must handle him carefully.”
When Dheer struggled with the scene, director Ravi Chopra halted the shoot. “Ravi ji said, okay, pack up. Then at night, he called me to say Pankaj wanted to meet me the next day. I said he is most welcome. Pankaj came home, and I read out a few things from Marathi literature to him, explained the whole thing. For that one scene, he went to the entire length and breadth of emotion to understand what he should be doing. The next day, we shot it — and he was brilliant.”
Bharadwaj recalled what he told his co-star that night to help him connect with Krishna’s point of view. “I told him that Karna is the fulcrum of this war. Everybody says to me, Krishna, that I can avoid this war. That’s not the truth. I have to ensure that the war takes place so that sab ki pratigya poori ho. But it is up to you, Karna, to avoid or abort this war because if you turn to the Pandava side, Duryodhana cannot go ahead with it.”
The actor also shared that he had recently reconnected with Dheer. “I was not really in touch with him for a long time. I was in touch with Puneet Issar and Roopa Ganguly. Recently, Pankaj got back in touch with me and said we should meet. I told him, I want you to come and see my play Chakravyuh on November 2 at NCPA. I was to invite him to that show.”
Getting emotional, Bharadwaj reflected on the loss of his Mahabharat co-stars. “With Gufi Paintal gone, Pankaj gone, I think we’ll have to initiate a reunion. Because most of these guys are, you know, I’m still 60, and most of them are 10 years older to me.”
He concluded, “He made me do a great job. And to be honest with you, Mahabharat has been a big school for me. Acting in Mahabharat, I learnt so many things from B.R. Chopra uncle and his son Ravi Chopra.”
Also Read: Mahabharat fame Pankaj Dheer passes away after battle with cancer
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