Mukesh Khanna, who played the role of 'Bhishma Pitamah', slammed Ekta Kapoor for her version of the epic 'Mhabharat'. He stated that she ruined the show after actors flaunted tattoos and six-pack abs. He further went on to state that she wanted daily soap actors for the show.

Talking to Economic Times on the matter, Mukesh said, "Ekta Kapoor took Ronit Roy to play Bhishma Pitamah and they were flaunting six-pack abs, she took popular heroines to play Draupadi and other female characters. I did 15 films before bagging the role of Bhishma Pitamah. I had given a proper look test wearing a beard and a mustache. We were selected on the basis of our audition and they were elected and that's why they did not look like the characters. She completely ruined it, satyanash kar diya tha..."

He further revealed that her was approached for the show, not for the role of 'Bhishma Pitamah' but his father Shantanu. Mukesh revealed, "You will be surprised to know I got a call from Ekta Kapoor's production house for her version of Mahabharat when she was making it. They offered me to play the role of Shantanu (Bhishma Pitamah's father) I told them 'Do you really think I will do Shantanu after playing Bhishma'?"

"She made a mockery of Mahabharat. She took all the daily soap actors and tried to make Mahabharat. They were flaunting tattoo's and six pack abs. If you want to make Mahabharat rise about it and don't try to ape it. Ekta must be very angry with me because I have spoken a lot about the kind of content she makes. I am against the way she projects women in her daily soaps," shared Mukesh Khanna, also adding that girls should not be judged by their age because he did Shaktimaan when he was more mature and played 160-year-old Bhishma Pitamah in his early career.

Ekta Kapoor's version of 'Mahabharat' aka 'Kahaani Hamaaray Mahaabhaarat Ki' went on to become a dud. It featured Aryan Vaid as Duryodhan, Chetan Hansraj as Bheem, Ajaz Khan as Dushasan, Sakshi Tanwar as Ganga, Ronit Roy as Bhishma, Anita Hassanandani as Draupadi, Akashdeep Saigal as Kans, Hiten Tejwani as Karna, Mrunal Jain as Krishna, Puja Banerjee as Radha and Gautam Gulati as teenager Duryodhan.