This series was a touching narrative of "Jalaluddin Mohammed,' remembered to everyone as ’Akbar The Great.' The serial was directed and produced by actor Akbar Khan. The executive producer was Shahl Sheikh. The art direction was by T.K. Desai. Hasan Kamaal wrote the dialogues. The screenplay was by Akbar Khan and Ananda Shankar. Naushad composed music and the photography was by V.Subba Rao. Muralidhar Gade handled the concept of visualization.
The cast of the series includes Shikha Rai, Akbar Khan, Vikrant Chaturvedi, Puja Ghai, Sushma Seth, Sharmilee Raj, Shahid Khan, etc. The serial was produced on top scale budget. To create the magnificent sets which can be equivalent to Mughal Era, 200 professional art designers worked relentlessly to design them which took nearly six months to complete. It helped in making palaces, townships and gardens of Mughal Era. Thousands of animals and people forces were used lavishly for war sequences and even replicas of cannons, guns, chariots and tents were made and installed. A great research was done by the team to project the authenticity of the period (Mughal Era) and priceless antiques were brought from Indian museums to bring authenticity in the magnificent television epic.
Exotic designs of costumes and jewelry were obtained from historical records. Akbar is considered as the great Mughal emperor who put the Mughal empire on a firm and stable footing. A film like ’Mughal-E-Azam’ or a TV series like ‘Akbar The Great’ had elaborated on the fictional tales of Akbar and his Hindu court Jester Birbal. It was one of the most costly Hindi historical serial ever made for Doordarshan. Actor Akbar Khan turned his attention to TV industry and directed the first 20 episodes of his brother Sanjay Khan’s epic TV serial ‘The Sword of Tipu Sultan.' Later, he produced, directed and also played the title role of Emperor Akbar in the classic TV serial ‘Akbar The Great.' This serial was telecast in the year 1988.
This show is a historic representation of Akbar produced and directed by Akbar Khan. The history of “Jalaluddin Mohammed” called as Akbar the Great and represents the most daring history of the world. Akbar is a famous Mughal Emperor, and his armies are very strong in nature, this show describes the nature and the living of the emperor and the struggles in huge budget as it is to be shown more clearly. And so, the show is not only narrated by the writers themselves, but also taken from various history books and events happened in real.
The producer and the director of the show needed the script to be more real and the serial shows the tremendous steps taken by them to make it as a reality show. As it is fully based on the Mughal Era, the complete story has to follow such lifestyle, dressing and jewels. The technicians who include the art directors, carpenters and molders of probably 200 members constructed palaces for 6 months which have the old age gardens, townships and pavilion’s. The costume designers designed the jewels with the historic touch of Mughal Era and also concentrated on the weapons they used, chariots and various things have been created with deep sense. To make the war more realistic, thousands of people were used. This show was a massive hit and now is available in DVD’s and VCD’s.