Sher-E-Punjab: Maharaja Ranjit Singh follows the journey of an exemplary king who placed service above rule and unity above power. Ankita Jain reports on the latest TV drama
Did you know that Maharaja Ranjit Singh, despite being uneducated, was a savvy judge of individuals and opportunitiesIJ A religiously tolerant personality, he was gentle even with his enemies. All these facets will come alive courtesy a new historical drama on life OK. “I like making shows based on history. Maharaja Ranjit Singh is my fourth venture after the success of Jhansi Ki Rani. This show is purely a passion-driven, rather than a profit-driven venture. It promises to be the biggest historical out of our stable. We have worked for over a year and a half with a 500-man unit working day and night to translate our vision into reality. We are also working with state-of-the-art VFX supervisors and stylists to give freshness to this epic saga,” said the producer as well as creative head of the show Abhimanyu Singh.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of Sikh Empire, is also known as the last Indian to hold the famed Koh-i-noor diamond and for gold-plating the Golden Temple. “The show follows the journey of the exemplary king who placed service above rule and unity above power. It sets out to discover all the facets of the man whose philosophies endeared him to his countrymen and whose political acumen struck fear in the heart of his enemies — the British and Afghans. We have cross-checked each and every bit of the story with the historians so that we provide the viewers with the original script,” explained Abhimanyu.
To support a story of this scale, the makers have got Omung Kumar onboard to design the sets, the one who has shown his extremely fine and flawless artwork in films like Black, Saawariya and Yuvvraj. Along with this, the costumes of the lead actors are designed by Bollywood costume designers Manoshi Nath and Rushi Sharma. They have also roped in Bollywood stunt director Allan Amin to design the war sequences in the show.
The makers have confirmed few facts about the Maharaja which the show will be revolving around. “First, inflicted with smallpox, Ranjit Singh lost vision in one eye as a child. We will show how he overcame this handicap. Second, he fought his first battle at the age of 11. We have shot across India for the battle grounds. Third, Ranjit Singh never wore a crown or sat on a throne. True to the Sikh tradition of everyone being equal before God, he used a silver chair as his seat of power. Simple in dress, he regularly engaged with his subjects so as to address their problems. Also the leap in the show will take place after a couple of months,” shared Abhimanyu.
And to portray this historic tale on camera, the makers went into extensive auditions. “We chose Damanpreet Singh playing the role of Maharaja Ranjit Singh after we were done with more than 150 auditions. His simplicity and innocence charmed us entirely. The other actors are Tunisha Sharma playing the role of Ranjit Singh’s wife, Mehtab Kaur, Shaleen Bhanot as Ranjit Singh’s father, Mahaa Singh, Sneha Wagh as Ranjit Singh’s mother, Raj Kaur, Sonia Singh Mehtab’s mother, Sada Kaur and Rumi Khan as Mehtab’s father, Gurbaksh,” he added.