Grand sets, extravagant costumes, jewellery for Meera..

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 was 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.

Utmost care has been taken while designing the costumes for the artistes on the show. Designed by Sheela Sagar, a wide variety of fabrics have been used right from silks to brocades to cotton. Some of the fabrics used for Meera's lehengas have been brought directly from Jaipur and Rajasthan. The existing richness of the fabric has been adorned with a variety of embroidered zardosi borders and kundan work.

The bright colors used for Meera as a child, symbolize the kind of person she was; vibrant, outspoken and a happy princess madly in love with her Krishna. 

Bright colors are also used keeping in mind the Rajput preference as they always loved to dress up in the best of clothes and jewellery. Even clothes for Meera's parents, uncles, aunts and cousins have been designed keeping in mind the character of every person. The fabrics used are the same for everyone to add exclusive richness to the show. 
 
Says Meenakshi Sagar, Sagar Pictures "A lot of research and effort has gone into the designing of the costumes in Meera. Right from the colors, to the fabric to the embroidery, care has been taken to keep the authenticity of that era alive. The jewellery was difficult to design as we did not want to repeat anything done before nor did we want to go overboard with the look of the characters. So almost all the pieces are exclusive and have been hand-made". 

With regards to the jewellery of Princess Meera, a lot of attention to detail has been given keeping the era in mind. In the show, the young princess will wear simple designs in kundan, gold and semi precious stones that go well with her age and attitude. Even the men of the family will wear jewellery keeping in mind their true Rajput spirit with pearls being the highlight of them all. 

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.
 
Catch the Saga of Meera on Imagine from July 27, every Monday – Friday at 8.00 pm.
 

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