Meera to have Jodhaa Akbar like sets

NDTV Imagine brings to life one of the country"s most loved classics Meera- the story of the legendary princess Meera, who renounced the luxuries of royal life and became the greatest devotee of Lord Krishna. Produced by Sagar Pictures, one of televisions" most renowned storytellers, this celestial epic of Meera will start this Monday July 27th and will air every Monday to Friday at 8.00 p.m only on Imagine.

In order to ensure the success of the show, the producers are paying attention to every minute aspect of the show. A lot of thought and effort has been put into designing the sets of the show, keeping in mind the period. Art director Chokas Bhardwaj was roped in to design the sets of Meera. It is for the first time after Jodha Akbar that a set of this magnitude has been made specifically for television.

The production team visited places like Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Pokhran, Mohangadh, Samodh and many other locations in Rajasthan to come up with an authentic set design and art work. Apart from various royal palaces in India, the team even visited Khudki- the birth place of Meera. Materials were shipped in from all over Rajasthan especially from Jodhpur as the referencing from there was most authentic. Attention has also been given to finer details like the curtains which have been especially hand-crafted. Artisans and skilled workers were hired for this task after an extensive search as nowadays mainly machine woven materials are available.

An entire team of over 500 workers each working in shifts were hired to recreate the magic of Rajasthan in Baroda. There are about 7 different sets that have been constructed for the show, ranging from the palace darbar to the various bedrooms. But the biggest of them all is a 3 storey palace exterior with a wide courtyard, open kitchens, terraces, towers etc. The palace has about 100 hand crafted pillars which took about 6 months to build right from planning to execution.

The characters in Meera will be essayed by a new generation of actors– Aashika Bhatia all of 9 years will be seen playing the lead of young Meera, the key characters of Veer Kunwari (Meera"s mother) will be played by Gauri Harmit Kaur and Ratan Singh (Meera"s dad) will be played by Kunal Bakshi respectively. Paras Arora will be seen playing Meera"s cousin brother while Twara Desai will be seen playing Meera"s friend Lalita.