Famously known as Dhritrashtra, actor Girja Shankar reminisces about the days before he started shooting for Mahabharat. The actor was barely 28 when he accepted to play Dhritrashtra, a father of Kauravas in B. R. Chopra‘s Mahabharat. He was optimistic about playing this character easily. However, reading about the role made him understand its importance. He insisted on playing the character by acting blind. He refused suggestions to wear lenses to look blind.
The actor stays in Los Angeles these days and settled there. He travels to India frequently for Punjabi films, he does. He recently shared his experiences of shooting Mahabharat when now he’s cherishing life in his 60s. He said that this was the most challenging character, as Dhritrashtra was blind and moreover he was in a great conflict through out his life, till the last frame of the series. Girja says that he was initially apprehensive about playing this role at the age of 28, but only after reading the book on which the show was based did he understand the importance of Dhritrashtra in Mahabharat.
Recalling the days from the shoot, he says that he used to get tired during the shoots as he trained his eyes to look straight for two years almost and had to take frequent breaks while shooting.He was offered to wear lenses by Ravi Chopra, but he insisted on doing it naturally, and fortunately, after the first take Mr Ravi Chopra told him that he was perfectly fine naturally, with nothing else to do.
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