BR Chopra threw Pankaj Dheer out of his office after he refused to shave his moustache for Arjuna's role. Later, he cast him as Karna in Mahabharat.
Based on the epic Mahabharata, the 1988 series Mahabharata telecast on Doordashan from 1988 to 1990 became a cult classic. The show was produced by BR Chopra and its 94 episodes were directed by his son Ravi Chopra. Nitish Bharadwaj, Mukesh Khanna, Gajendra Chauhan, Roopa Ganguly, and Puneet Issar played some of the most pivotal roles in the series.
It's quite an interesting story that Pankaj Dheer, who played Karna in Mahabharat, was first offered the role of Arjuna but he declined the same as he refused to shave his moustache. BR Chopra, who had earlier thrown him out of his office, later cast him as Karna in the show. Pankaj recalled the incident in a recent interview with Lehren Retro.
The veteran actor said, "When I gave my audition, dialogue writers Rahi Masoom Raza, Bhring Tupkari sahab and Pandit Narendra Sharma ji had a panel together. They all thought that I would suit the role of Arjuna well. We shook hands on that and I signed the contract. Then BR Chopra called me and told me that since I would also have to play the role of Brihannala (the eunuch form of Arjuna) and for that I would need to shave off your moustache. I was like, ‘No, I can’t do that.’ I told him that my face’s balance is such that if I shave off my moustache, I won’t look good. He told me, ‘Are you an actor or what? You are leaving such a big role because of a moustache. I can’t understand this.'"
"It was my big stupidity but at that time, I could understand only this much. Chopra sahab told me, ‘Get out of this door and don’t come back.’ He threw me out of his office. My contract was torn and for six months I kept roaming around and doing dubbing. Chopra sir called me again and this is what I call destiny. He asked me if I could do Karna’s role. I asked him, ‘Sir I don’t have to shave off my moustache right?’ He said no. It was destiny that I got Karna’s role", Dheer concluded.
Arjuna's role was played by Firoz Khan, who even changed his name to Arjun professionally after the show's success. The other reason for him changing his name was the fact that it was too similar to Feroz Khan.
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