Jodha Akbar

Jodha Akbar is an epic drama that focuses on how marriage policy brings the love of Jodha Bai and Akbar in a measure that has changed the destiny of India. This period drama also describes the wars of this time and the relations between the Mughals and Rajputs, and how Jodha and Akbar face trials and tribulations to be together. The drama also focuses on the operating Queens, courts, courtesans, and ministers and their influence on the love story of Akbar and Jodha Bai. Finally, the show also portrays how Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad acquired the title 'Akbar' from the people of India.

Jalaluddin Mohammad, a fearless warrior, son of Emperor Humayun and Hameeda Bano Begum, became the Emperor of the Mughal dynasty at a very young age. He is under the influence of Bairam Khan, his reagent, and Maham Anga, his foster mother. Bairam Khan has taught Jalal to be a ruthless ruler, and spread his rule by fear, conquer people by the sword. Jalal, following Bairam Khan's ideals becomes a heartless and fearsome ruler, whom the people dislike. He wants to conquer the entire Hindustaan, and presently, he is eyeing the golden Rajputana.

Jodha Bai, princess of Amer, daughter of Raja Bharmal and Rani Mainavati, is a kind and intelligent young girl, who believes in ruling people's hearts and that rule is spread by love and togetherness, not by force.

She decides to go to a far away temple to offer prayers on her birthday, along with Moti Bai, her friend and aide. While offering prayers there, a band of mughal soldiers come and start looting the jewellery of the Goddess. When Moti Bai tries to stop them, they try to molest her. Angered at this, Jodha asks who could be so cruel as to rob people of their religions, to which a temple person replies Jalaluddin Mohammad. Jodha pledges to destroy Jalal and present his head before the Goddess. Meanwhile, Moti Bai, embarrassed by the turn of events, decides to commit suicide, but Jodha prevents her. This makes Jodha even more vengeful.

Jalal punishes a man for stealing his shoes by cutting off his legs. He decides to meet Sharifuddin, a subedar of, close to Amer, so that he can wait for the right moment to attack the unaware Rajputs. Later Sharifuddin, with the help of Sujamal, attacks Amer and wins the battle. He demands per month treasure from Amer by keeping Jodha's brothers as hostage. Later, when Sharifuddin keeps on increasing his demands, bharmal's friend suggests him to meet Jalaluddin Mohommad. When Bharmal meets Jalal,Bharmal's friend advices Jalal and Bharmal to get married Jodha to Jalal. Bharmal initially disagrees but later agrees. When Jodha gets to know about her marriage with Jalal, she disagrees and even try to drink poison but later agrees due to Amer's safety. After Jodha and Jalal's marriage, Jodha doesn't allow him to touch her and she behaves rudely with him. Jalal too, doesn't love Jodha, he married her as he want to win over her and he also wish to take revenge from Jodha as she insulted him in Amer. Later, Rukaiya gets pregnant with Jalal's baby. This news brings a lot of happiness in Jalal's life but his happiness is short lived as Maham Anga mixes poison in Kesar which was given to Rukaiya. Maham Anga frames Jodha and her family in Rukaiya's unborn child's death case but Jodha is proved innocent. After that Jalal accepts his mistake. He feels guilty to doubt innocent Jodha. He gives Jodha an option to divorce him and go to Amer forever, as she hates him and doesn't wants to live in agra. Jodha accepts this favour but her mother refuses her to take her to Amer as a Divorcee. Heartbroken, Jodha tries to commit suicide but Jalal saves her. Now this story takes a different turn, as Jalal develops sympathy towards Jodha. He realizes how lonely Jodha has become, he feels sad for her. Many events take place in Jodha and Jalal's life like their trip to Ajmer Sharif, Sukanya's marriage which was fixed by Jalal, Jodha's fake pregnancy which was a trap by Sharifuddin as he wanted to separate Jodha and Jalal, but instead Jalal trusted Jodha and found the real truth. Due to all these events Jodha and Jalal develop friendship and understanding. Jalal gave an excellent decision in Tasnim's case, which impresses Jodha, she starts to consider Jalal as a friend. She decides to write a letter to Jalal thanking him for saving Tasnim's life. But Maham Anga read the letter wrong, she told Jalal that Jodha has confessed love for him and her desire to spend a night with him. Jalal gets so happy after hearing Maham's words. That night, Maham got Jalal so drunk and she sent him to Jodha's room. Jalal in a drunken state tries to get close to Jodha, but she denies and unintentionally pushes him. Jodha tells him that she don't love him and only considers him as a friend. She further says that she can't share her body with him. Jodha's bitter words and that push, angers Jalal and hurts his ego. From that night, Jalal starts taking revenge from Jodha, he starts insulting her repeatedly and brings a dancer called Benazir to hurt Jodha and make her jealous. He was unaware that Benazir has come to kill Jalal.

Certain Rajput groups claimed Jodhaa was married to Akbar's son, Jahangir, not Akbar, whereas certain reports state that Jodha and Akbar were not married, although the primary history proves that Akbar and the princess of Amber were married on which the show is made as a complete show can't be false. They also protested against the show along with Bharat Ka Veer Putra – Maharana Pratap, another historical series that aired on Sony TV.[7]

The title of the series was criticised by members of the Kshatriya community as misleading, politically motivated historical revisionism that minimised Rajput history. The community protested against the series in Rajasthan, and alleged that if the name was not changed, they would not let any Balaji Telefilms films to be released in the state.[7] Ekta Kapoor stated, "I always believe it's 80% history and 20% folklore. There are enough proofs that say it's true, but then some people say it's not. Akbar had a certain graph and we know that. We cannot negate that he changed his heart from a power-hungry ruler to a non-biased one because of his Rajput queen."[8] The story is loosely true but has a wholesome addition of drama.

Rajat Tokas during the shooting of the Jodha Akbar at ND Studios, Karjat.

The producer of the show, Ekta Kapoor was influenced by the 2009 big screen movie, Jodhaa Akbar, directed by Bollywood's Ashutosh Gowariker.[9][10]

Rajat Tokas who had earlier worked with Ekta Kapoor in the soap opera, Tere Liye was selected to play the role of the protagonist Akbar.[11][12]

Ekta Kapoor stated she conducted 7000 auditions for the female protagonist Jodha across the nation before selecting Paridhi Sharma.[13]

Ashwini Kalsekar was selected to play the role of Maham Anga, Akbar's primary caretaker and protector.[14]

This series is dubbed in Tamil as same name on Zee Tamil, in Telugu language as same name on Zee Telugu, in Bengali Language as same name on Zee Bangla, in Malayalam language as same name on Zee Keralam, and in English language as same name on Zee World Africa

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jodha Akbar.

• Jodha Akbar at IMDb
• Jodha Akbar at ZEE5