Jodha Akbar

This article is about the television series. For the film, see Jodhaa Akbar.

Jodha Akbar
Genre	Historical drama
Created by	Ekta Kapoor
Developed by	Ekta Kapoor
Written by	Research, Lyrics and Consultant Dr. Bodhisattva Story and Screenplay R M Joshi Anil Nagpal Binita Desai Manish Paliwal Kirtida Gautam Neha Singh Mayuri Roy Chaudhary Sahil Dogra Koel Chaudhuri Dialogues Dheeraj Sarna
Directed by	Santram Varma Ranjan Singh Vicky Chauhan Arshad Yunus Khan Kadar Kazi(kk)
Creative directors	Shaalu Kadar kazi(kk)
Starring	Rajat Tokas Paridhi Sharma
Theme music composer	Lalit Sen
Country of origin	India
Original languages	Hindi Urdu
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	566
Production
Producers	Ekta Kapoor Shobha Kapoor
Production locations	Jaipur Karjat Kolhapur
Cinematography	Santosh Suryavashi
Editors	Vikas Sharma Vishal Sharma Sandeep Bhatt
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	Approx. 24 minutes
Production company	Balaji Telefilms
Original release
Network	Zee TV
Release	18 June 2013 (2013-06-18) – 7 August 2015 (2015-08-07)

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. It was replaced by Tashan-e-Ishq in its timeslot.

Plot

Jodha Akbar is an epic drama that focuses on how the marriage policy brings the love of Jodha Bai and Akbar in a measure that has changed the destiny of India. This drama period 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 K 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 Khan as child Mehtab
• Shoaib Khan as child Haider
• Sheezan K Mohd as Sultan Murad Mirza and 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
• Chetnaa Meeraa 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

Rajat Tokas during the shooting of the Jodha Akbar at ND Studios, Karjat.

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

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2013	Indian Television Academy Awards	Best Historical/Mythological Show	Ekta Kapoor	Won
		Best Actor in Negative Role	Chetan Hansraj	Won
		Best Actress in Negative Role	Ashwini Kalsekar
		Best Art Direction	Sandesh and Vishwanath
		Best Costumes	Nidhi Yasha
		Best Actor (Drama)	Rajat Tokas
	BIG Star Entertainment Awards	BIG Star Most Entertaining TV Show (Fiction)	Ekta Kapoor	Won
		BIG Star Most Entertaining TV Actor	Rajat Tokas
2014	Star Guild Awards	Best Historical Series	Ekta Kapoor	Won
		Best Director (Fiction)	Santram Verma
		Best Actor in Leading Role	Rajat Tokas
	7th Boroplus Gold Awards	Best Actress in Negative Role (Critics)	Ashwini Kalsekar	Won
		Best Actor in Negative Role (Critics)	Chetan Hansraj
		Best Actress in Supporting Role (Critics)	Lavina Tandon
		Golden Debutante of the year(Female)	Paridhi Sharma
		Best Actor in a Lead Role (Critics)	Rajat Tokas
		Best Television Show of the Year (Fiction)	Ekta Kapoor
	Indian Telly Awards	Best Actress in Negative Role	Ashwini Kalsekar	Won
		Best Fresh New Face (Female)	Paridhi Sharma
		Best Actor in a Lead Role	Rajat Tokas
		Best Ensemble Cast	Ekta Kapoor
		Best Historical Series	Ekta Kapoor
2015	Star Guild Awards	Best Ongoing Drama Series	Ekta Kapoor	Won

External links

• Jodha Akbar at IMDb
• Jodha Akbar at ZEE5