Nitish Bharadwaj

aneshwari, the knowledge she had imparted to Nitish from childhood. 

Nitish has one younger brother Rahul Upadhye Bhardwaj and a younger sister Aastha Goswami.

Besides being famous for his iconic role as Lord Krishna in B. R. Chopra’s television serial Mahabharat, he also portrayed the role of Vishnu and several avatars of Vishnu in some of B. R. Chopra’s other great works, such as Vishnu Puran. 

He did his debut in the Marathi film Pitruroon which won him accolades from the audience and the critics.  He is now mostly focused in his career in films through his screen writing, directing and dancing. 

Before he took up the career in acting, Nitish was a professional veterinary surgeon and worked as an assistant veterinarian at the Mumbai Race Course. However, he left his job and took up arts career and started training in Marathi theatre as a director under Marathi film stalwarts like Sudha Karmarkar, Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar and Prabhakar Panshikar. He then shifted to Hindi theatre. Ravi Baswani was instrumental in getting Nitish Bharadwaj from Marathi films to the nationwide Hindi arena. Nitish has always acknowledged this fact and Baswani’s contribution to his career. 

Nitish Bharadwaj has worked with thespians such as Dinesh Thakur and has performed in many plays till 1987. He later had been a part of the Hindi mythological play Chakravyuh which went on to become one of the most successful plays at the Hindi theatre in 2025 which had over 75 showings across India. The film was also showcased at the Kala Ghoda Festivals Mumbai where Bharadwaj also performed in a musical theatre production titled Moti Roti Patli Chunni in 1993.

He also worked with renowned theatre in London named, ‘Theatre Royal Stratford East’. The play won the ‘London Time Out Dance & Performance Award for which Nitish has toured across Britain and Canada

Bharadwaj also did 2 radio shows for BBC Radio at London UK for Bhagvad Geeta and Ramayan. He was also nominated for the Sony Radio Award for Ramayana in UK in the year 1995.

Nitish Bhardwaj – Television Career

In 1988, Nitish Bharadwaj was selected to play the lead role of Lord Krishna in B.. R. Chopra’s classic television serial Mahabharat. He played this iconic role at the age of 23 and had become as superstar overnight. His cheerful performance was loved and appreciated by the audience. He also did a cameo role in the show Buniyaad’s 51st episode.

Nitish had also directed a philosophical television series called the Gita Rahasya, Apraadhi for the Star TV and also directed a few documentary films.

In the year 2000, Nitish Bhardwaj had appeared in B.R. Chopra’s another mythological show Vishnu Puran wherein he essayed the role of Lord Vishnu with his various incarnations. In 2001, he played the role of Lord Rama in B.R. Chopra’s Ramayan with Smriti Malhotra Irani.

Film Career

Nitish Bhardwaj starred as the main lead in many Marathi films such as Khatyal Sasu Nathal Soon, Nasheebwan Anapkshit, Pasanta Ahe Mulgi, in Trishagni with Nana Patekar. He also was acted in the Nian Gandharvan, 1991 Malayalam much acclaimed film directed by P. Padmarajan. Padmarajan was planning a big film with Mohanlal and Nitish in the lead roles but the director had died before the film could materialize.

He was a judge at the Marathi Dance reality show on ETV Marathi and a part of Jallosh Suryanyugacha with actress dancer Sudha Chandran and veteran actor Ramesh Deo.

Nitish has also directed a Marathi film starring Tanuja, Suhas Joshi, Sachin Khedekar titled Pitruroon. Which was his debut. The film was based on a novel by Sudha Murthy. Pitruroon received many nominations and awards due to which Nitish Bhardwaj had received Maharashtra State Film Awards as the Second-Best Director of the year 2013. In 2020 he appeared on scree as Sudarshan Chakrapani in Marathi Web Series Samantar which was telecast on MX Player.

Nitish also had important role in films like Mohenjo Daro and Kedarnath.

Nitish Bhardwaj in Politics

Nitish had contested the parliament elections from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and in Raighar in Madhya Pradesh as the Bhartiya Janata Party Candidate. He was elected Lok Sabha as the Member of Parliament whereby he defeated veteran Inder Singh Namdhari in the 1996 elections. He however, lost to Laxman Singh in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections from Raigarh constituency.

He also worked in BJP Organizational unit of Madhya Pradesh and was a spokesperson for a while until he voluntarily retired from active politics to focus on his film career and went on to be a screen writer and a film director.