'Govinda told me to give it a shot': Firoz Khan aka Arjun of 'Mahabharat' on auditioning for the role

After three decades, Doordarshan's Mahabharat is topping TRP charts and how! Due to the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, everyone is glued to their televisions and watching the mythological show religiously which airs twice a day all seven days of the week. On the show, the role of Arjun is played by Firoz Khan, who later changed his name to the screen name owing to his popularity. Now during an interaction with Hindustan Times, Arjun spoke at length about he landed up the role. 

He stated, "I went in and saw actors like Deepak Parashar, Raj Babbar and Govinda, among others there. The auditions for Mahabharat were going on and Govinda told me to give it a shot. I was given two pages of dialogues in Hindi. I told him to read out the lines in Hindi so that I could rewrite them in English." 

Firoz also said, "A week after when I didn’t get a callback, I went to his office. I was asked to wear my costumes and a moustache. I went up to Chopra Saab's cabin in the first floor and he was sitting there along with our writers, Dr Rahi Masoom Raza and Pandit Narendra Sharma and they told me that I’ve been locked to play Arjun."

On being quizzed about his reaction to the current generation being glued to the show, the actor went on to say, "It’s a proud moment to watch Mahabharat with the present generation. It’s a good opportunity for them to know more about their culture. Even my grandchildren are watching it and they’re amused to see me shooting arrows."