Director Ashutosh Gowariker’s Magnum Opus Panipat is based on  the  Third Battle Of Panipat which is one of the biggest battles ever fought in the Indian History.

This is the first time that director Ashutosh is attempting a war based film on such a large scale.   His last magnum opus  Jodhaa Akbar was more of a romantic film with very little portions of war sequences.

The battle of Panipat is based on the 18th century when the Maratha’s emerged as the most powerful empire in the whole of India but had to fight against Agfhan King Ahmad Shah Abdali when he invaded India.   Sadashiv Rao Bhau of the Peshwa Kingdom fought against him leading to the biggest war ever fought in the Indian History.

Both Sadashiv Bhau Rao  and  Ahmad Shah Abdali were great military strategists.  During the battle  Sadashiv employed the  SQUARE formation for his entire army while  Abdali encountered with the CRESCENT formation and this was the toughest part to bring to the screen.

For the war sequences Director Ashutosh Gowariker wanted the battle scenes to be very grand as well realistic hence he shot most of the battle scenes in Jaipur as he wanted the scale of the war scenes to be gigantic.  Only few portions were shot in Karjat at ND Studios.   The entire battle scenes were shot in 45 days and shooting the battle scenes was not easy due to extreme temperatures.  The entire cast and crew shot   in the blazing sun during the night and braved the extremely cold in the evenings.

Director Ashutosh Gowariker says “We have shot the scenes in Jaipur as we wanted large open spaces for the war sequences which are available in Jaipur.  I have tried to be very realistic as I didn’t want to do much of VFX which would have made the scenes look fake.   Shooting in extreme temperatures was not easy but thanks to the entire cast and crew who were very co-operative. Arjun Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt shot without any complaints and have done a commendable job.”