What is assured first and foremost is the unchallenged entertainment potential of the stories with their blend of supernatural fantasy, suspense, intrigues and intellectual stimulus. It is said that the stories were among a 1,000 or more stories written by an obsessed writer as a personal mission for the entertainment of a king many centuries ago. When the king’s sycophants did not let the writer, Somdev Bhatt meet the king he is said to have gone to a forest, lit a bonfire and begun to throw each story into the fire after reading it out aloud. The birds and animals of the forest were his audience and so enraptured were they by the stories that they didn’t move from their positions for hours. The king heard about the weird phenomenon from his cook and the hunter who brought the fresh meat of a deer which was absolutely cold that day for the king’s feast.

The king set out for the jungle to witness the wonder himself and he listened to Somdev Bhatt and experienced the thrill of the stories written for him. The king managed to retrieve the Betaal Pachisi collection which comprised tantalizing stories with a mind boggling riddle at the end of each story.

Betaal Pachisi, written nearly 2,500 years ago by Mahakavi Somdev Bhatt are spellbinding stories told to the wise King Vikramaditya by the wily ghost Betaal. The tales of Vikram and Betaal possess a wealth of pageantry and splendor of ancient times. They are eternally enthralling stories which parents insisted their children watch and share all the wealth, wonder and wisdom of the series. The new Vikram Betaal is the same, age old classic collection of stories told with all the gloss and hi-tech visual embellishments available today.

Year of telecast: Kahaniya Vikram aur Betaal ki is on air from 17 th May 2009, Sunday. It is being telecasted on Sundays on Colors channel at 11.00 a.m. It was a bid by Colors to revive the Sunday morning slot which in the past had proved extremely successful.

Direction and casting: Kahaniya Vikram aur Betaal ki is directed by Prem Sagar under the banner of “Sagar Arts.” The role of Vikram is being played by Tarun Khanna and that of Betaal is played by Badrul Islam. This was the first mythological/fantasy show of actor Tarun Khanna after which he played many a role this particular genre. Shiv Sagar, the creative producer of the show convinced Tarun to do the role, of which he was a bit uncertain at that time.