Thief of Baghdad (TV series)

Thief of Baghdad was an Indian fantasy adventure TV series that first aired on Zee TV between 2000–2001. The show was loosely based on the Arabian Nights story.[2] It was originally intended to run for 48 episodes[3] but it went off-air in June 2001 abruptly due to a conflict between the production house and Zee TV.[4] It was directed by Vijay Pandey, who has earlier directed shows like Sword of Tipu Sultan, Great Maratha, Arth, Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand and Saat Phere. It was also syndicated on sister channels Zee Next and Zee Smile and Zee Anmol.[5][2][6]

Thief Of Baghdad
GenreFantasy
Written byShafique Ansari
Screenplay byRam Govind
Story byRam Govind
Directed byVijay Pandey
Theme music composerRaju Singh
Composer(s)
  • Bittu Merchant
  • Raju Singh
Country of originIndia
Original language(s)Hindi
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes48
Production
Executive producer(s)Sanjay Wadhwa

Purnendu M. Shekhar Rajeev Sharma Sangeeta Bajpai

Deepak Chabria
Producer(s)Reena Wadhwa
Editor(s)
  • Mahesh M. Mistry
  • Sanjay Chowdhury
Running time40 minutes
Production company(s)R.W. Media[1]
DistributorZee Entertainment Enterprises
Release
Original networkZee TV
First shown inIndia
Original release25 October 2000 (2000-10-25) –
2001
External links
Website

Synopsis

Set in the Middle East during an era of marvellous adventures and magical folk tales as narrated in the Arabian Nights, 'Thief of Baghdad' tells the story of Jafar, a ruthless warlord serving under the command of the evil genie 'Shah Jinn' and his obsession with conquering the entire world to become its undisputed king.

Shortly after invading the city of Baghdad with his army and brutally vanquishing a secret rebellion led by Mukhtar, a spiritual leader and revolutionary, Jafar is informed by Shah Jinn and his sorceress aide Badi about a prospect which can greatly assist him in achieving his seemingly overwhelming objective. Jafar must convince a princess belonging to a peaceful kingdom of fairies to marry him of her own volition in order to gain complete authority and control over the inhabitants of both realms. Immediately, he decides to interrupt the birthday celebration of the beautiful princess Yasmeen and take her away from her kingdom to imprison her in his palace full of grim spells preventing her from escaping back to her home. As the princess begins to develop feelings of despair and anguish, hope appears in the form of a notorious thief known only throughout the city as the 'Thief of Baghdad', a sly and artful hero who steals from the rich to help the poor and oppressed.

One night during an intrusion into Jafar's palace to retrieve a collection of magical items stolen from three visiting merchants, the Thief coincidentally encounters the captive princess and they both recall their romance with each other prior to the events which unfolded with the appearance of Jafar. Realising the severity of the situation and its impact on every inhabitant in both realms, the Thief decides to do whatever he can to stop the tyranny of Jafar and rescue the Princess from his vile grasp.

As the series progresses the Thief and several allies he forms relationships with all have to endure and overcome the dangerous obstacles and ghastly traps Jafar has set to secure his position as the ultimate king of kings.

(Unfortunately, due to a dispute between the production house and Zee TV, the remaining episodes of the series were never completed or aired on television and the final resolution to the story remains unknown.)

Cast
  • Ahmed aka Thief Of Baghdad – Narendra Jha
  • Yasmeen – Kim Lasrado
  • Jafar – Vikrant Chaturvedi
  • Tugral - Shiva
  • Abbas - Javed Khan
  • Masood - Surinder Pal
  • Qasim - Browney Prasher
  • Jamal Zardari - Puneetchandra Sharrma
  • Faridgul - Shailendra Shrivastav
  • Zareen – Pallavi Solanki
  • Badi - Zahida
  • Neki - Jaya Mathur
  • Khanam - Asha Bachani
  • Yusuf Sani - Sunil Nagar
  • Malika Nasreen - Seema Pandey
  • Firoz Bakht – Sumit Pathak
  • Alim Haqqani - Prithvi Zutshi
  • Azra – Shashi Sharma
  • Kulsum - Prerna Agarwal
  • Chitrasen - Radha Kishan
  • Zahoor Malkooti - Sanjay Batra
  • Usman - Mukesh Ahuja
  • Rustam - Master Mohit Makkad
  • Hakimbaba - Shahnawaz
  • Raziya - Rajshree
gollark: The raffles were *more* work than adding something to the market.
gollark: Hardly.
gollark: Of course it is. Everything was better in the olden days.
gollark: We all know of The Thread.
gollark: The sheer balance is incredible.

References
  1. Reddy, Sujata (22 November 2014). "Reena Wadhwa on how husband Ashok, CEO of Ambit Holdings, encouraged her to go back to acting". The Economic Times.
  2. "Zee comes out with five new shows". Indian Television Dot Com. 18 October 2000.
  3. Dumont, Hervé (18 December 2017). Contes et légendes d'Orient: au cinéma et à la télévision (Tales and legends of the East: In cinema and television) (in French). Paris: BoD - Books on Demand. p. 151. ISBN 9782322101351.
  4. "Thief Of Baghdad ends on ZEE TV". BizAsia | Media, Entertainment, Showbiz, Events and Music. 12 July 2001.
  5. "Fun times for kids". www.tribuneindia.com. 8 August 2004.
  6. "Timeless tale". www.tribuneindia.com. 10 December 2000.
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