MUMBAI: During this lockdown period, many classic shows have returned to television to entertain viewers and Mahabharat is one of them. It features Mukesh Khanna as Bhishma Pitamah. The veteran actor seems to be in news now almost every day ever since the iconic show came on air again. The actor made headlines for his bold comments about Ekta Kapoor and her version of Mahabharat and then for mocking actress Sonakshi Sinha. This time the actor was trending on Twitter on Thursday when a user tweeted a picture of his sitting in front of what appeared to be an air-cooler in a scene from the epic on-air these days. Twiterrati had a field day making memes and posting funny comments about spotting a 21st century desert cooler in the Dwapar Yug when the actual Mahabharat is supposed to have taken place. Although later, a few users also pointed out that it may actually be the design on a pillar on the set erected, which appeared to be like the grill of a desert cooler.

However, commenting on the whole issue, Mukesh Khanna, who is happy with two of his shows, Mahabharata and Shaktiman being aired again, says he wants to know who actually posted the picture of him sitting in front of the cooler. “I had been hearing about a picture of mine from the sets of Mahabharat going viral where I am shown sitting in front of a cooler, for the past few days. I want to know yeh picture aayi kahan se and secondly yeh kisne spot kiya?”

Speaking to TOI on phone, he adds, “I doubt if this picture is from a still from the show. And if it is, it is a huge mistake. But from what I can say after seeing it is that it appears to be clicked in between shots. I don’t think such a glaring mistake would have happened from BR Chopra’s side. He was too careful with the making and the editing of Mahabharat.”

But the actor does agree that he used to use a cooler while on sets. “We were shooting in Film City which was fully air conditioned. However, since I had such heavy costumes and to top it all a long beard which I had to wear most of the day I used to feel extremely hot. Especially because of the beard. So, I requested BR Chopra ji to allow me to use an air-cooler. The beard was such that after shots I used to sweat a lot and it used to irritate me. In fact, I was so done with this beard and the look that later I rejected almost 15 films because my character was supposed to have a beard. To get out of that zone and that character, I made Shaktiman which showed me in a completely different avatar,” says Khanna.

Credits: TOI