Mukesh Khanna reveals late Pankaj Dheer never read ‘real’ Mahabharat: 'I used to jokingly call him...'

Pankaj Dheer, known for portraying the character of Karna in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat, passed away yesterday at the age of 68 after his battle with cancer.

His Mahabharat costar Mukesh Khanna spoke about Dheer and their time together on his YouTube Channel and said Pankaj’s death “was a sudden one.”

Sharing that he interview Pankaj a year ago on his podcast, Mukesh shared, “I had initially thought that I would play the role of Karna or Arjun, but God left me to play Bhishma where I saw ‘Ayushman Bhava’ all the time and I am living with that image till now, and then Pankaj came in front of me with the role of Karna.”

The Shaktimaan actor revealed that he had convince Pankaj last year for the podcast as he didn’t want to talk about past and Mahabharat. Mukesh reached about again a few months back for another conversation but Dheer declined and that’s when he came to know about his health.

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Talking about Pankaj’s early days, he shared, “Pankaj Dheer began his career as an assistant director on my first film Roohi, earning just Rs 300 a month at the time as an assistant director. I remember him working very honestly and energetically on set of the film. His way of speaking was also very good, he spoke in a very stylised way. I worked with him again in Saugandh and Pandav. He used to call me MK, he loved food and he spoke very nicely. He also dressed very well.”

“Although his father was also associated with the film industry, Pankaj has struggled in the industry. He faced many hardships,” he added.

“Over time, many of our Mahabharat co-stars - like Gufi Paintal (Shakuni) and Praveen Kumar (Bheem) - have passed away. And now, Pankaj Dheer too,” the actor mentioned.

Sharing the anecdote of Pankaj’s portrayal of Karna, he shared, “The most remarkable thing was that he had never actually read the Mahabharat.”

“He hadn’t read the real Mahabharat, he had read Mrityunjay, which was from the point of view of Karna. So, he found many scenes missing in the BR Chopra’s Mahabharat according to what he had read. He often felt like he didn’t get this scene or that scene,” Mukesh said.

“I used to jokingly call him Convent Pandav because he hadn’t read the real Mahabharat. But his performance was so brilliant,” concluded Mukesh.