Chandrakanta (TV series)
| Chandrakanta | |
|---|---|
 The main lead of Chandrakanta: Shahbaz Khan as Prince Virendra Singh & Shikha Swaroop as Princess Chandrakanta. | |
| Written by | Devaki Nandan Khatri |
| Directed by | Nirja Guleri and Sunil Agnihotri |
| Creative director(s) | Sunil Verma |
| Starring | Refer Cast of Characters |
| Opening theme | "Chandrakanta" by Sonu Nigam |
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language(s) | Hindi |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 130 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Nirja Guleri |
| Location(s) | Film City Mumbai |
| Cinematography | Nadeem Khan & Manoj Soni |
| Editor(s) | Sunil Verma |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | Approx. 52 minutes |
| Production company(s) | M/s Prime Channel |
| Release | |
| Original network |
DD National (Original); Sony TV (Syndicated) |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
Chandrakanta is an Indian fantasy television series partly based on Devaki Nandan Khatri's novel of the same name. It was originally telecast on Doordarshan's DD National between 1994 and 1996 and was produced by Nirja Guleri and directed by Sunil Agnihotri.
The serial was controversially pulled off air by Doordarshan in 1996 and the producers had to file a suit in court for reinstatement.[1] It later enjoyed reruns on Star Plus and Sony Entertainment Television.[2]
Cast of characters
- Mamik Singh As a Deva
- Shahbaz Khan as Kunwar Virendra Vikram Singh
- Shikha Swaroop as Princess Chandrakantaa
- Javed Khan as Tej Singh
- Mukesh Khanna as Janbaaz, Also as Meghavat in later part of the story
- Vijayendra Ghatge as Sumer Singh
- Parikshit Sahni as Maharaja Surendra Singh (King of Naugarh)
- Pankaj Dheer as Shiv Dutt (King of Chunargarh, a Vish Purush)
- Durga Jasraj as Rani Kalawati
- Rajendra Gupta as Pandit Jagannath/Shani (his twin brother, a villain)
- Akhilendra Mishra as Kroor Singh aka Yakoooo
- Irrfan Khan as Badrinath/Somnath(his twin brother)
- Krutika Desai Khan in 4 roles as Sabhya/Ramya (twin sister of Sabya) and Amba (Vish Kanya) and Jwala the dacoit
- Sonika Gill as Amrapali ambas mother.
- Anu Dhawan as Tara (Vish Kanya)
- Kalpana Iyer as Dum Dumi Maai/Sultana (Ally of Tara)
- Roopal Patel as Jamuna (Cousin sister of Roopmati, a villain)
- Vinod Kapoor as Amarjeet Singh/Barkat Khan
- Brownie as Ajgar
- Aashif Sheikh as Naagmani Devata (Snake King)
- Surendra Pal as King of Vijaygarh
- Pradeep Rawat as Himmat Singh
- Arun Mathur as Vaidh Baba (Damini's father)
- Deepak Parashar as Devdutt (Shivdutt's father)
- Sudha Chandran as Stayavati(Shivdutt's mother)
- Bhushan Jeevan as Dalpati Devata
- Roopa Ganguly as vishvajeet singh mother Daamini
- Waqar Sheikh as Vishwajeet Singh (illegal son of Raja Surendra Singh and Damini).
- Brahmachari as Nazim Aiyyar
- Aamir Aiyyar
- Ahamad Aiyyar
- Jeet Singh Aiyyar
- Ajit Singh Aiyyar
- Sumer Singh
- Udai Singh
- Deewan Kupat Singh
- Chapla
- Chandni
- Champa
- Bahar
- Ketaki
- Shaitan Singh
- Zaalim Singh
- Maha Maya Mayawati
- Changeji
- Rustam
- Kanchan
- Shakaalpati
- Mahakaal
- Kesar
- Kalyani Devi
- Pannalal
- Chunnilal
- Ramnarayan
- Bhagwandutt
- Ghasita Singh
- Vijay Bahadur
- Badal
- Jungi
- Toofan
- Pawanhans
- Arjun (Firoz Khan) as magician mentor of vishvajeet singh
The serial started with story oysters chandrakantas search for her prince but ended up with Sabiyas story. The series was restarted in 1999, but production was stopped once again due to financial problems. In the last episode, Chandrakanta had been kidnapped by Shivdutt.
Criticism
Kamlapati Khatri, the grandson of the novel's author has said that the producer "had not done justice to the soul of Khatri’s Chandrakanta". He has also accused the producers of willfully misrepresenting certain concepts from the novel such as "tilism" (kind of a maze) and "ayyari" (spying) and showing it as "jaado-tona" (sorcery) plus the characters and the sequences in the Chunar fort were exaggerated beyond requirement while the Chandrakanta appeared after a really long time in the show.[3]