Jodha Akbar

Jodha Akbar is an Indian Historical drama television series that aired from 18 June 2013 to 7 August 2015 on Zee TV and is also digitally available on ZEE5. The show was produced by Ekta Kapoor under Balaji Telefilms. Starring Rajat Tokas and Paridhi Sharma, it was a successful show with praises for its cast performances. It replaced Rab Se Sohna Isshq and was replaced by Tashan-e-Ishq in its timeslot.
Plot
Jodha Akbar is an epic drama that focuses on how marriage policy brings the love of Jodha Bai and Akbar in a measure that has changed the destiny of India. This period drama also describes the wars of this time and the relations between the Mughals and Rajputs, and how Jodha and Akbar face trials and tribulations to be together. The drama also focuses on the operating Queens, courts, courtesans, and ministers and their influence on the love story of Akbar and Jodha Bai. Finally, the show also portrays how Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad acquired the title 'Akbar' from the people of India.
Jalaluddin Mohammad, a fearless warrior, son of Emperor Humayun and Hameeda Bano Begum, became the Emperor of the Mughal dynasty at a very young age. He is under the influence of Bairam Khan, his reagent, and Maham Anga, his foster mother. Bairam Khan has taught Jalal to be a ruthless ruler, and spread his rule by fear, conquer people by the sword. Jalal, following Bairam Khan's ideals becomes a heartless and fearsome ruler, whom the people dislike. He wants to conquer the entire Hindustaan, and presently, he is eyeing the golden Rajputana.
Jodha Bai, princess of Amer, daughter of Raja Bharmal and Rani Mainavati, is a kind and intelligent young girl, who believes in ruling people's hearts and that rule is spread by love and togetherness, not by force.
She decides to go to a far away temple to offer prayers on her birthday, along with Moti Bai, her friend and aide. While offering prayers there, a band of mughal soldiers come and start looting the jewellery of the Goddess. When Moti Bai tries to stop them, they try to molest her. Angered at this, Jodha asks who could be so cruel as to rob people of their religions, to which a temple person replies Jalaluddin Mohammad. Jodha pledges to destroy Jalal and present his head before the Goddess.
Meanwhile, Moti Bai, embarrassed by the turn of events, decides to commit suicide, but Jodha prevents her. This makes Jodha even more vengeful.
Jalal punishes a man for stealing his shoes by cutting off his legs. He decides to meet Sharifuddin, a subedar of, close to Amer, so that he can wait for the right moment to attack the unaware Rajputs. Later Sharifuddin, with the help of Sujamal, attacks Amer and wins the battle. He demands per month treasure from Amer by keeping Jodha's brothers as hostage. Later, when Sharifuddin keeps on increasing his demands, bharmal's friend suggests him to meet Jalaluddin Mohommad. When Bharmal meets Jalal,Bharmal's friend advices Jalal and Bharmal to get married Jodha to Jalal. Bharmal initially disagrees but later agrees. When Jodha gets to know about her marriage with Jalal, she disagrees and even try to drink poison but later agrees due to Amer's safety. After Jodha and Jalal's marriage, Jodha doesn't allow him to touch her and she behaves rudely with him. Jalal too, doesn't love Jodha, he married her as he want to win over her and he also wish to take revenge from Jodha as she insulted him in Amer. Later, Rukaiya gets pregnant with Jalal's baby. This news brings a lot of happiness in Jalal's life but his happiness is short lived as Maham Anga mixes poison in Kesar which was given to Rukaiya. Maham Anga frames Jodha and her family in Rukaiya's unborn child's death case but Jodha is proved innocent. After that Jalal accepts his mistake. He feels guilty to doubt innocent Jodha. He gives Jodha an option to divorce him and go to Amer forever, as she hates him and doesn't wants to live in agra. Jodha accepts this favour but her mother refuses her to take her to Amer as a Divorcee. Heartbroken, Jodha tries to commit suicide but Jalal saves her. Now this story takes a different turn, as Jalal develops sympathy towards Jodha. He realizes how lonely Jodha has become, he feels sad for her. Many events take place in Jodha and Jalal's life like their trip to Ajmer Sharif, Sukanya's marriage which was fixed by Jalal, Jodha's fake pregnancy which was a trap by Sharifuddin as he wanted to separate Jodha and Jalal, but instead Jalal trusted Jodha and found the real truth. Due to all these events Jodha and Jalal develop friendship and understanding. Jalal gave an excellent decision in Tasnim's case, which impresses Jodha, she starts to consider Jalal as a friend. She decides to write a letter to Jalal thanking him for saving Tasnim's life. But Maham Anga read the letter wrong, she told Jalal that Jodha has confessed love for him and her desire to spend a night with him. Jalal gets so happy after hearing Maham's words. That night, Maham got Jalal so drunk and she sent him to Jodha's room. Jalal in a drunken state tries to get close to Jodha, but she denies and unintentionally pushes him. Jodha tells him that she don't love him and only considers him as a friend. She further says that she can't share her body with him. Jodha's bitter words and that push, angers Jalal and hurts his ego. From that night, Jalal starts taking revenge from Jodha, he starts insulting her repeatedly and brings a dancer called Benazir to hurt Jodha and make her jealous. He was unaware that Benazir has come to kill Jalal.
Cast
Main
Rajat Tokas as Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar: 3rd Mughal Emperor; Humayun and Hamida Bano's son
Paridhi Sharma as Jodha Bai: with degree Mariam-uz-Zamani, Malika-e-Hind (queen of Hindustan); Jalal's favourite wife; Bharmal and Mainawati's daughter
Smiley Suri / Lavina Tandon as Ruqaiya Sultan Begum: Jalal's first wife and chief wife
Chhaya Ali Khan as Hamida Bano Begum: with degree Mariam Makani; Jalal and Bakshi Bano's mother
Ravi Bhatia as Salim: Jalal and Jodha's son; Anarkali's love interest
Ayaan Zubair Rahmani as child Salim
Heena Parmar as Anarkali: Rashid Khan and Zil Bahar's daughter; Salim's love interest
Saniya Touqeer as child Nadira/Anarkali
Recurring
Naved Aslam as Bairam Khan: Rahim's father
Manisha Yadav as Salima Sultan Begum: wife of the late Bairam Khan; Jalal's senior consort
Ashwini Kalsekar as Maham Anga: Jalal's foster mother; Adham Khan's biological mother
Chetan Hansraj as
Adham Khan: Maham Anga's son; Haider's father
Haider Khan: Adham Khan and Javeda's son
Prianca Shharma/Unknown as Javeda Begum: Adham Khan's wife; Haider Khan's mother
Parag Tyagi as Sharifuddin Hussain: Khwaja Moin's son; Mehtab's father
Sonakshi More as Bakshi Bano Begum: Mughal princess; half-sister of Jalal; Mehtab's mother
Lokendra Rajawat as Shamsuddin Atgah Khan
Amarpreet Rait as Jiji Anga: Atgah Khan's wife
Rajeev Saxena as Raja Bharmal
Natasha Sinha as Rani Mainawati
Kunal Bhatia / Unknown as Rajkumar Bhagwant Das: Maan Singh and Maan Bai's father
Nupur Saxena / Unknown as Rai Kanwar: Bhagwant's wife; Maan Singh and Maan Bai's mother
Ankit Raizada as Maan Singh
Jyotsna Chandola as Maan Bai
Ankita Dubey / Ankita Chaudhry as Moti Bai: Jodha's maid
Kaif Ali Khan / Ayush Anand as Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana: Bairam Khan's son with his previous wife
Veer Lodaya as child Rahim
Vicky Batra as Kunwar Sujamal
Gandharva Pardeshi as Rajkumar Jaganath
Dev Bishit as Rajkumar Khangar
Akhil Vaid as Rajkumar Raj Singh
Dharti Bhatt as Sukanya
Pragati Choursiya as Shivani
Farida Dadi as Bharmal's mother: Jodha's grandmother
Gagan Kang as Abul Maali
Pranav Misshra as Mirza Muhammad Hakim: Humayun and Maha Chuchak's son
Mita Vashisht as Maha Chuchak Begum
Shilpa Raizada as Nigaar: Humayun and Chaand's daughter
Unknown as Chaand Begum: Nigaar's mother
Nisha Pareek as Naazima Begum: she lives in the Harem (Palace of Queens)
Kiran Shergill as Ruksaar Begum: Daniyal Mirza's mother; she lives in the Harem (Palace of Queens)
Shraddha Singh as Gulbadan: who wrote a book on the history of King Humayun
Ashok Devaliya as Hoshiyar Khan: servant (Kasim) of Ruqaiya
Manoj Patel as Resham Khan: faithful servant (Kasim) of Maham Anga
Unknown as Naazneem Begum: including the wife of Jalal; she lives in the Harem (Palace of Queens)
Vaibhav Singh as Aziz Koka: Atgah Khan's son
Vijay Badlani as Ramtanu Pandey aka Tansen: a Rajput musician
Shaurya Singh / Lokesh Batta as Todarmal
Unknown as Urmila: Todarmal's wife
Gopal Singh as Mahesh Das aka Birbal
Sweety Walia as Mahesh Das's wife
Unknown as adult Mehtab: Sharifuddin and Bakshi Bano's daughter
Sumbul Touqeer as child Mehtab
Shoaib Khan as child Haider
Sheezan Khan as
Sultan Murad Mirza
Young Akbar
Ricky Patel as child Murad Mirza
Gaurav Sharma as Sultan Daniyal Mirza: Ruksaar's son
Unknown as child Daniyal Mirza
Kunal Khosla as Qutubuddin Koka
Unknown as child Qutub
Angel Fernandes as child Aaram Bano
Unknown as Shakrunnisa
Geet Sharma as Khanum
Anurag Sharma as Maharana Pratap
Ajay Paul Singh Andotra as Lakshman Das: Minister Amer
Bhakti Narula as Lilavati
Kalyani Trivedi / Zarina Roshan Khan as Shagunibai: clairvoyant
Javed Pathan as Sheikh Gadai
Harjeet Walia as Chugtai Khan: King Bharmal's best friend
Prince Singh as Suryabhan Singh
Aryan Maheshwari as one of the palace officials
Sanjeev Jaiswal as King Achal Singh
Zeba Hussain as Chanda: servant in the Kingdom of Amer
Riney Aryaa as Saira
Manju Raizada as royal healer
Meghna Naidu as Benazir
Juhi Aslam as Zakira
Unknown as Tejwant: an ordinary craftsman; Shivani's husband
Bobby Kumar as Atemat: a dancer (Kasim). He appeared in the episode of Sujamal's case about sending a letter to Jodha and he also witnessed with his own eyes that Atgah Khan was killed by Adham Khan. (2013)
Ketan Karande as Khaibar Zaara
Gaurrav Walia as Amaanullah Khan
Surbhi Singh as Sakeena/Atifa
Manish Bishla as Mirza Kasim
Chetna Kaintura as Zeenat
Raanveer Chahal as Rashid Khan: Nadira/Anarkali's father
Unknown as Zil Bahar: Nadira/Anarkali's mother
Unknown as adult Sakina: Nadira's childhood friend
Unknown as child Sakina
Unknown as adult Qadir
Mohammed Saud Mansuri as child Qadir (2014)
Unknown as Fatima: an old woman who was Qadir's grandmother
Amit Sehgal as Abu Fazal
Shiv Mishra as priest at the temple while Jodha was praying for Qadir's recovery
Rohit Joshi as Farhan: Salim's friend
Unknown as Jagat Gossai: daughter of king Uday Singh; princess of Jodhpur; Maan Bai's friend
Munendra Singh Kushwah as Raja Khambar Singh: the king of an inland tribe
Unknown as Bela: King Khambar's daughter
Babita Anant as Kaushalya: villagers
Vishnu Bholwani as Jagdev
Abhilash Chaudhary as Raja Drumak
Melanie Pais as Laboni
Kamalika Guha Thakurta as Laboni's Mother
Kishan Bhan as Taantrik
Historical accuracy
Certain Rajput groups claimed Jodhaa was married to Akbar's son, Jahangir, not Akbar, whereas certain reports state that Jodha and Akbar were not married, although the primary history proves that Akbar and the princess of Amber were married on which the show is made as a complete show can't be false. They also protested against the show along with Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap, another historical series that aired on Sony TV.
The title of the series was criticised by members of the Kshatriya community as misleading, politically motivated historical revisionism that minimised Rajput history. The community protested against the series in Rajasthan, and alleged that if the name was not changed, they would not let any Balaji Telefilms films to be released in the state. Ekta Kapoor stated, "I always believe it's 80% history and 20% folklore. There are enough proofs that say it's true, but then some people say it's not. Akbar had a certain graph and we know that. We cannot negate that he changed his heart from a power-hungry ruler to a non-biased one because of his Rajput queen." The story is loosely true but has a wholesome addition of drama.
Production
The producer of the show, Ekta Kapoor was influenced by the 2009 big screen movie, Jodhaa Akbar, directed by Bollywood's Ashutosh Gowariker.
Rajat Tokas who had earlier worked with Ekta Kapoor in the soap opera, Tere Liye was selected to play the role of the protagonist Akbar.
Ekta Kapoor stated she conducted 7000 auditions for the female protagonist Jodha across the nation before selecting Paridhi Sharma.
Ashwini Kalsekar was selected to play the role of Maham Anga, Akbar's primary caretaker and protector.
Adaptations
This series is dubbed in Tamil as same name on Zee Tamil, in Telugu language as same name on Zee Telugu, in Bengali Language as same name on Zee Bangla, in Malayalam language as same name on Zee Keralam, and in English language as same name on Zee World Africa
Awards
References
External links
Jodha Akbar at ZEE5
Indian period television series
Indian historical television series
Balaji Telefilms television series
Zee TV original programming
2013 Indian television series debuts
2015 Indian television series endings
Mughal Empire in fiction
Cultural depictions of Akbar
Cultural depictions of Tansen
Television series set in the 16th century
Cultural depictions of Jahangir
Television series about Islam