B R Chopra’s Mahabharata is an evergreen serial. It has life lessons for everyone and is timeless. Currrently, the epic tv series is being re-run on DD Bharathi during the lockdown period.
From Lord Krishna’s `Sayyam’ to `Sankalp’,to Yudhistar’s Dharma and Justice. But somehow, Duryodhana who is an antagonist and central character of Mahabharata has many lessons for us. The stellar role was played by Puneet Issar, who is a proclaimed fitness freak. The actor who was 30 then, had put in hours of intense workout regimen to get into shape for the role of Duryodhan. Even today, at the age of 60, Puneet continues to swear by his fitness regime.
Duryodhan could have been a great king if he subdued his arrogance and jealous nature. He teaches us lot of good things how not to behave and what will be the consequences of being bad. Words used to describe his qualities in Mahabharata: Jealous, cunning arrogant, wicked, cruel, stubborn,foolish and crook minded. He never showed respect towards elders. He was cunning.he could have given five villages to his cousins and be an emperor but he didn’t- Shows his non sharing tendency.He had a chance to choose Krishna over his army but he didn’t because of ignorance and arrogance. He got very bad friends on his side- chosen Shakuni, Sishupala, Jarasandha as his companions. He always underestimated his enemies.
On the 18th day of the war when the Pandavas and Duryodhan were at the fag end of the war, he was staring defeat. At that point, Yudhistar made the strangest offer to Duryodhan that he could pick any of the five Pandavas for a duel (gada yudha).It was impossible for any of the four Pandavas other than Bheema to even give a challenge to Duryodhan. Check out Puneet issar amazing dialogue delivery here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG2X8vpLDKo
BR Chopra’s Mahabharat featured Nitish Bhardwaj as Krishna and Roopa Ganguly as Draupadi, with Gajendra Chauhan, Praveen Kumar, Arjun, Sameer Chitre and Sanjeev Chitre as the Pandavas, and Punit Issar playing Duryodhana. The show ran originally from 2 October 1988 to 24 June 1990.
