MUKESH KHANNA, SHAKTIMAAN HIMSELF EXPLAINS “WHY SHAKTIMAAN SERIES ENDED ABRUPTLY?”

LAVIKA JAIN || EP Exclusive
JAMMU, JULY 24: Shaktimaan is an Indian Hindi-language superhero television show that aired on DD 1 from 13 September 1997 to 27 March 2005. Producer Mukesh Khanna played the role of Shaktimaan who was depicted as a human who has attained superhuman powers through meditation and five elements of nature: Space, Earth, Air, Fire, Water.
Let’s see why Shaktimaan series ended abruptly? Mukesh Khanna told that he himself wanted to share the reasons behind the ending of the series Shaktimaan.
He explained, “Shaktimaan was one of the most loved Hindi television shows. And I’ve made my company Bheeshm International too from there, it was so hit kind of show.”

When it was planned to start a series named SHAKTIMAAN, the proposal was put before DG of DOORDARSHAN channel and DG also appreciated the concept of first Indian super hero. He asked to come Mukesh on Saturday morning and told him to give 104 straight episodes.
But the point was the timing might not match with the schedule of children as some schools tend to remain open on Saturdays. Then at that time, Mukesh called agency in Bombay and they gave him suggestion that to take another night slot of any day, along with Saturday.
Again he went to DG with the same idea. While in lift they had conversated and then went on a ride with the idea. Then he agreed and gave slot timings of 11:30 to 12:30 on Saturday and 10:30 to 11:30 on Tuesday. And at that time, these slots were considered as the non-prime slots. But still Mukesh gave it a try and converted that non-prime time to the most prime slot through SHAKTIMAAN.
But also there were some problems that some children started bunking their schools only for watching the show because at that time it was the only prime show which took concern of Indian super hero.
And that time his fees for the same package was worth Rs. 3,80,000, in which both my channels used to work. At that time also everything was sponsored and they had to pay according to the slots. It worked for 100-150-200 episodes and later on, it was told to do on prime slots like Sunday and fees went on to Rs. 7,80,000 but still worked with it. After getting more popularity, the slot for the show became more costlier and went onto Rs. 10 lakhs and the reason was given that after 104 episodes the fees rates gets progressed. It felt like the success of the show got penalised.
Then he wrote a letter to assistant DG conveying my problem and even mentioned “Shaktimaan is the only one serial among 100 serials of DOORDARSHAN on satellite to be popular.” For the next time, the rate of the slot increased and went upto Rs. 16 lakhs. Then he started protesting as this was not the way to charge for the popular show slots.
Another responsibility increased on him when he launched Aryamaan, another show. He tried a lot but ultimately, it started giving him losses then it ended up in an abrupt condition.

“Now people are asking me to bring season 2 of SHAKTIMAAN and I’m also eagerly waiting for the same.”, he added in last.

Agencies