When the Mahabharata Went Global

Arjuna stands on the battlefield, facing the cousins he must kill. He lowers his bow, unwilling to fight. But the god Krishna urges him to fulfill his duty and perhaps destiny. It’s one of the most famous episodes in the famed epic, the Mahabharata. But in Peter Brook’s 1989 film adaptation, this moment looks completely different. Arjuna is played by an Italian actor. Krishna is British. Of the leads, only one actor, Mallika Sarabhai — who plays Draupadi — is Indian.

Brook’s Mahabharata began as a nine-hour stage production in 1985, before he adapted it into a 5.5-hour film four years later. At a time when Western theater and Hollywood offered just 10% of their roles to actors of color, Brook put up a strikingly multiracial cast. Yet his decision drew significant criticism. 

Over three decades later, when Christopher Nolan cast The Odyssey with Lupita Nyong’o as Helen, Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, and Zendaya as Athena, people were up in arms. So was Brook, in breaking down racial boundaries, ahead of his time? Or did doing so come at the expense of the very Indians whose story he wanted the world to embrace? The Juggernaut spoke to a theater critic who saw the play when it came out and interviewed Brook, scholars, and more to find out.