History spun the dice - but Roopa Ganguly’s take on Draupadi was destiny’s best wild card.

On a muggy Calcutta afternoon in the late ’80s, Roopa, not yet a household name, gets telegrammed by the Mahabharat team, calling her to Mumbai with urgency. In another timeline, Juhi Chawla would’ve been Draupadi. Fate twisted. Call it the cosmic roll of the dice or good old Bollywood jugaad.

Not the Obvious Pick - But the Right One

Roopa Ganguly as Draupadi in Mahabharat

Forget glitzy auditions and read-throughs. Roopa entered the fray almost by accident. She wowed viewers in Ganadevta, a Bengali TV serial, catching the sharp eye of lyricist Pandit Narendra Sharma. Next thing, BR Chopra’s team telegrams her: “Please contact us immediately. We have you in mind for Draupadi.” No fanfare, no agent wrangling - just her raw screen-test fired straight to Chopra and his crew. Ravi Chopra, notoriously hard to please, spotted ‘fire’ behind her gaze.

Juhi Chawla? She got offered the part, but film commitments (yes, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak) led her elsewhere. Lucky break or well-timed leap - Roopa stepped in.

Once Cast, No Looking Back

Roopa Ganguly as Draupadi in Mahabarat

Hindi gave Roopa the jitters - she was a Bengali speaker then - yet she tackled BR Chopra’s marathon shoots with ferocity and, just sometimes, tears. She credits her co-star Nitish Bharadwaj (Krishna) and Pankaj Dheer (Karna) for support, but make no mistake: it’s her voice that made Draupadi thunder - pain, pride, fury, heartbreak.

Some Interesting Titbits

It used to take 1.5 hours to transform Roopa into Draupadi daily - hair braids, jewelry, layers of silk. Sometimes, makeup artists got up earlier than her.

What Came After - Fame and Friction

Roopa didn’t bank on lasting fame. Mahabharat was a gig, not a golden gate. Yet her Draupadi turned her into one of the highest-paid TV actors in India’s fledgling cable era. Awards, applause, even politicians asked her opinion.

Did everything run smoothly? Nope. Fellow cast members, especially Debashree Roy, weren’t thrilled at first; rivalry and tension happened. Roopa powered through - sometimes by sheer stubbornness, sometimes by quietly crying backstage. A two-decade run in films (Bengali, Hindi, Odia, Kannada, Assamese) followed, plus deep dives into politics - the BJP drafted her in 2015, and yes, controversies trailed after.

Even now, fans hail her as the OG Draupadi - memes, reruns, interviews replay her voice everywhere, especially come November birthdays and Mahabharat anniversaries.

Roopa, a complex figure: survivor, diva, accidental goddess. Destiny chooses in strange ways; sometimes it rings you up before dinner.