‘Thought my career will end here’: Surendra Pal initially refused role of Dronacharya in Mahabharata

MUMBAI: Actor Surendra Pal, who is popularly known for his role of Dronacharya in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat, revealed that he initially refused the role because of the character’s age.

Surendra Pal recalled being offered the role of Dronacharya after initially hoping to play Arjun or Karna. He said he was reluctant to portray an older character, fearing it would end his career.

“Mahabharata was to be telecast. Gufi Paintal had called me and said, ‘Can you come to my office?’ I said, ‘yes, I will come’. I met Gufi sir. He welcomed me very well and said, there is one role left. All our castings have been done. I thought, I will do either Arjun’s role or Karan’s role because I was very good-looking”, he said.

“I had good height and breadth. I thought, I would get a good role. Young, dynamic, but when they told me to play the Dronacharya role, I refused, Gufi sir, but when I played Dronacharya in front of BR Chopra, he said, ‘this looks like Dronacharya and said we will make him Dronacharya’,” he added.

However, the actor refused due to the character’s old age. To this, writer Dr Rahi Masoom Raza reminded him that Dronacharya was a powerful army general, not simply an old man. The actor said he was deeply moved by the interaction and eventually accepted the role, which became memorable for him.

“I said, I want to say something to you. He said, ‘go ahead’. I said, ‘I don’t want to play the role of an old man. I am not interested. I think my career will end here’. He smiled and said, ‘it’s not like that’. Dr Rahi Masoom Raza was sitting there. He scolded me a lot. As I told you earlier, he said, ‘Dronacharya was not an old man. He was an army general. He could have made 10 Arjuns and 10 Duryodhans. He could have slapped both of them. He was such a powerful man. And if he had fought the war of Mahabharata with his Yatha Shakti. Then before sunrise and sunset, he might have ended the whole war. He was such a powerful man’,” Pal said.

“Anyway, I got a lot of scolding from him for this. And I was so emotional that I started crying there,” he added. Apart from the role in Mahabharata, the actor is also known for his roles Amatya Rakshas in ‘Chanakya’, Tamraj Kilvish in ‘Shaktiman’ and Daksha in ‘Devon Ke Dev…Mahadev’. (ANI)