In the era of Doordarshan, if there was one serial that gained immense popularity it was BR Chopra’s Mahabharat. It was telecasted after the phenomenal success of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana. Mahabharata was aired from 1988 to 1990 and the director-producer of this epic serial hand-picked the cast and crew for their respective roles. But did you know that Rahi Masoom Raza had initially declined BR Chopra’s request to write for his TV adaptation citing the time constraints?
In an anecdote. mentioned in Poonam Saxena’s English translation of “Scene 75″, a novel by Raza himself, which was first published in 1977, it has been mentioned how he was not on board for the mega TV project.
In the book, Poonam quotes a memoir by Kunwarpal Singh, the legendary poet and screenwriter’s close friend and colleague at the Aligarh Muslim University, who narrated the tale. When BR Chopra requested Raza to write the dialogues, he declined, saying “he didn’t have the time”. But Chopra went ahead and announced his name at a press conference anyway.
In no time, there was opposition from some quarters. The letters questioned, “Were all Hindus dead that Chopra had to give this task to a Muslim?”
As per the book, Chopra promptly forwarded the letters to Rahi Masoom Raza. The very next day the Urdu poet called the director and said, “Chopra sahib! I will write the Mahabharat. I am a son of the Ganga. Who knows the civilisation and culture of India better than I do?”
In 1990, in an interview with a leading magazine when Raza was asked about the opposition from Hindu fundamentalist groups to writing the dialogues for the famous serial, he answered: “I’m hurt and amazed at the furore created about Muslims writing the script. Am I not an Indian?”
Raza was born in 1927 in Ghazipur in eastern Uttar Pradesh on the banks of the Ganga. He is best known for works like Aadha Gaon, Dil Ek Saada Kaghaz and Topi Shukla. In 1967, he moved to Mumbai to try his luck in Hindi films and worked there until his death in 1992.
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