'Vishnu Puran' actor Nitish Bharadwaj reveals Hema Malini, Roopa Ganguly didn't recognise him in Parshurama avatar

During an interaction, Nitish Bharadwaj took a trip down memory lane and shared an anecdote during the shoot of 'Vishnu Puran'.

Back in the late 80s and the 90s, Nitish Bharadwaj became a household name with his role as Lord Krishna in BR Chopra's Mahabharat and then avatars of Lord Vishnu in Vishnu Puran. His face became synonymous to Lord Krishna and fans pictured him as the Hindu god. Now, during a recent interaction, Nitish spoke at length about not getting recognised by Mahabharat co-star Roopa Ganguly who played Draupadi and also Hema Malini.

The actor stated, "I remember one time, when the scenes of Lord Parshurama were being shot and those episodes had not gone on air yet, I was sitting on the sets of Vishnu Puran in proper avatar. Roopa Ganguly, who at that time was pursuing her career in Bengali cinema, had come to Mumbai to meet Ravi Chopra and me."

Nitish further shared, "She kept on searching for me while sitting right next to me, unaware of my presence. I deliberately did not speak to her. It was only 30 minutes later when she asked Ravi Chopra for me, did she realise she was sitting beside me all this while and it took Roopa by surprise."

Talking about Hema Malini, Bharadwaj said, "The same thing also happened when I travelled with Hema Maliniji on a flight. Talking to me about the character, she wondered how Raviji had managed to find an actor to play Parshuram, whose eyes resembled mine. She didn't seem to recognize that I was, in fact, the actor who played the role and so, I decided to play along and told her that Raviji had to audition almost 50-60 actors. It was only a week later that she called me and playfully taunted me for putting her on the spot."