Mahanadhi (TV series)

Country of originIndiaOriginal languageTamilNo. of seasons1No. of episodes432+ProductionProduction locationTamil NaduCamera setupMulti-CameraRunning timeapprox. 22–24 minutes per episodeProduction companyGlobal VillagersOriginal releaseNetworkStar VijayRelease23 January 2023 (2023-01-23) –
present (present)

Mahanadhi – Sakotharigalin Kadhai (transl. The Great River – The Story of Sisters) is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language drama television series starring Lakshmi Priya, Swaminathan Anantharaman, Prathiba / Divya Ganesan / Dharani Hephzibah, K. Kamarudin, Aadhirai Soundararajan, Rudran Praveen, Baby Kavya with Saravanan and Sujatha Sivakumar in the pivotal roles.^[1][2] It is produced by Praveen Bennett under the banner of Global Villagers.

It premiered on Star Vijay on 23 January 2023 and is also available on the digital platform Disney+ Hotstar.^[3] The series was launched along with Siragadikka Aasai.^[4] Lead pair of this serial gained huge popularity & fondly called by fans as 'Vika'. They received critical acclaim & many awards for their on-screen chemistry. Awards:Behindwoods most romantic pair on televison 2024 - Vijay and kaveri. Vijay television awards favourite onscreen pair 2024 -Vijay and kaveri (swaminathan and lakshmipriya).

The series depicts the story of four sisters around a family, who lost their father and tries to rise up in society.^[5] Mahanadi tells the tale of four sisters who coexisted well with their parents. leaving them in distress over the loss of their father. This piece discusses how the mother and girls will manage without an actual figure of a father. Set in Kodaikanal, a mountainous town where everyone has returned and where people enjoy each moment with a smile and other things, this story takes place. The father had owned a company and encouraged a rivalry with a buddy named Pasupathi. Pasupathi who is well known, where using his tactics to harm everyone. One day, Saravanan went to learn more about the property he had purchased, where there had been some issues and where Pasupathi had purchased the property, where he was shocked to learn that it had been purchased by someone else. Where Saravanan grew unhappy and bitter from his agony, collapsed, and died.

The girls were left speechless after learning of the tragedy, were unable to buy anything since they had no cash on hand and were shown the way by being forced to sell all they owned and move from one location to another. While this is happening, the hero is presented. Kumaran, a tailor, is aware of the situation and does all he can to help. His tailor shop also features images of Ganga as a model. Her marriage is set in stone, and Santhanam wants a lavish ceremony. Nobody in the family is aware of where he is putting the funds for the wedding, though. Before the wedding, he goes to his buddy Pasupathy and requests for money. Pasupathy replies that the money he sent home was all for nothing. Heartbroken Santhanam is unable to afford his daughter's wedding. He is discovered dead in his bed on the day of Ganga's wedding. The plot then centres on how the four girls, together with their mother, deal with life without their father, and portray a strong sense of sisterhood.parents.Ganga's marriage was cancelled and she gets married to kumaran.Nivin loves kaveri and expresses his love towards her and she also accepts it ,at the same time yamuna,kaveri's younger sister ,3rd daughter of the family also fell in love with nivin as he rescue her from ragav, pasupathy's son when he kidnaps her for revenge against kaveri.Ragini,nivin's cousin, pasupathy's daughter also loves him and pasupathi blackmailed nivin and made him engaged to ragini.seeing this ,kaveri feels heartbroken and refuses to listen to nivin.Narmadha ,the youngest daughter have heart problems so the family decides to move to chennai for her operation and for that she needs money so with the help of police she get pasupathi arrested and get her father's money from him and thus nivin and ragini marriage get cancelled but kaveri family thinks he get married since she stops the wedding just before he tie the knot so they don't know whether the marriage happened or not.They return to chennai but pasupathi didn't allow them to get a house in chennai finally they found one house but pasupathi shows up there and ask the house owner somasundaram to not give the house to them and the fight starts between them.At that time ,his grandson,Vijay, a rude and angry man beats up pasupathi and throw him out of the house.But kaveri has another struggle when kumaran lost all the money 33 lakh they get from pasupathi and now kaveri has no choice so she agreed to do the contract marriage with vijay for one year as he has no interest in marriage and he has no parents so for his grandparents happiness he has to do marriage so he gives money to kaveri for her sister operation and they get married secretly and everyone get shocked to see them married and kaveri family doesn't forgive her but vijay family accepts them and that night kaveri meets nivin on road and learns that he is not married to ragini and waits for her with the same love but he gets shocked when he sees nuptial thread on her neck and learns she is married before he confronts her vijay comes there and take her away and ask her to go back to him after 1 year which she refuses.At the reception, pasupathi shows kaveri and nivin footage to everyone but vijay supports her and throw pasupathi out of the wedding hall.Slowly ,kaveri falls for vijay when they went kodaikanal vijay rescues her from the pasupathi who blackmailed nivin to marry ragini by kidnaping kaveri but vijay saves her and ask nivin to wait for 10 months.When nivin ask vijay about this 10 months he revealed their contract marriage to him and nivin says he will wait for kaveri so he also helps yamuna so she fell in love with him more.Kaveri learns that vijay is not a rude guy but a very jovial person but when his lover vennila runs away from their marriage on the wedding day he feels devastated and thus he changed.So kaveri tries to make him forget the past and vijay started to have feelings for her and his grandfather who knows about their contract when vijay and kaveri had heated argument over her sister getting insulted due to vijay's uncle so he try to get them together and made kaveri ,a part of vijay's company so they have more moments together.Vijay feels heartbroken when kaveri disappeared from home due to argument between them and they reunited after vijay apologize to her and starts to analyze his feelings for her.Ragini married ajay,vijay's cousin and enter vijay house to harm kaveri.Kaveri also loves vijay and notices his change towards her as he is not that angry guy and slowly he starts respecting her and also her family as he is not like that initially and loves his change and feels happy.Vennila,vijay's ex lover was in orphanage and she has lost all her memories and she doesn't speak with anyone and she was mentally not healthy as she lost her family in an accident and also forgets vijay but seeing his ad on newspaper she remembers some past but doesn't get clear views.When ragini ask ajay about vennila,his father tells he was the reason for vennila runs away from wedding and ragini hatches a plan to bring vennila back.Vijay gets memories of vennila but later realises he can't live without kaveri and thus he gets villa to gift kaveri on her birthday surprisingly as she likes that.But when yamuna proposes nivin and ask him to marry her he rebukes her and reveal he waited for kaveri thus yamuna misunderstanding kaveri has extra marital affair with nivin and confronts her.Kaveri knowing this outburst her anger at nivin for saying this and says she is vijay's wife how could she return to him.So,nivin reveals he knows about contract so kaveri thinks vijay doesn't love her and only she has feelings for him and left heartbroken and starts avoiding him.Yamuna attempt suicide and nivin saves her by admitting her in hospital and informs kaveri.and gives moral support to her but she contact vijay for her support but vijay slept due to the friends party and doesn't notice kaveri phone call.Kaveri says if vijay was with me,i feel good so nivin learns kaveri needs vijay and also learns she has no interest in him.Vijay convinces yamuna and tells kaveri has not done any mistake and makes her understand.Kaveri fear of loosing yamuna ask nivin to marry yamuna and also tells that she has only infatuation towards him in the past and now only she feels what is deep love as she now realise her love for vijay but he stubbornly refuses. vijay brings kaveri and yamuna to farmhouse and when nivin doesn't show up to marriage with yamuna vijay meets him privately and tells that he is deeply in love with kaveri and never leave her for any reason and ask him not to wait for her as she is his wife and will always and the contract will never end and they are living as husband and wife in their heart and also said that kaveri doesn't give me any chance to feel that i have seperated her from you forcefully and said when she married me she had moved on from you thus he will never leave her and also threatens nivin to marry yamuna.

• Lakshmi Priya as Kaveri Vijay: Vijay's wife, the second daughter of Mahanadhi family, and Nivin's ex-lover.
  • Lakshmi Priya's role Kaveri portrayed as Vennila in her imagination while Vijay narrated his past love
• Swaminathan Anantharaman as Vijay: Kaveri's husband, the second son-in law of Mahanadhi family, Somasundaram and Kalyani's grandson, and Vennila's ex-lover

• Prathiba (2023) → Divya Ganesan (Nov.2023–2024) → Dharani Hephzibah (Aug.2024–present) as Ganga Kumaran: Kumaran's wife, and the eldest daughter of Mahanadhi family
• K.Kamurudin as Kumaran: Ganga's husband, eldest son-in-law of Mahanadhi family, tailor shop owner, Santhanam's nephew
• Aadhirai Soundararajan as Yamuna: the third oldest sister of Mahanadhi family and she has a love-interest on Nivin one-sidedly.
• Rudran Praveen as Nivin: Kaveri's ex-lover, Raagini's ex-fiancé
• Baby Kaavya as Narmadha: the youngest sister of Mahanadhi family
• Sujatha Sivakumar as Saradha, Santhanam's wife, Mother of Mahanadhi Sisters.
• Pankajam as Paatti - Ganga, Kaveri, Yamuna and Narmadha's Grandmother. Santhanam and Shanthi's Mother. Saradha's Mother-in-law. Kumaran's Ammachi.
• Manikandan Raj as Somasundaram "Somu" - Vijay's grandfather.
• Ramesh as Pasupathy, Santhanam's betrayed friend who deceives them out of their land.
• Shathiga as Raagini Ajay, Pasupathy's daughter, Raghav's sister, Kaveri's former friend turned arch-rival; Ajay's wife, Nivin's Ex-fiancé
• Sumi Santhosh as Jaya, Nivin's mother
• Sanjay Mohan as Raghav, Raagini's brother, Pasupathy's son
• Baskar Natarajan as Ajay, Anbarasu's & Radha son, Vijay's cousin brother, Kavya's brother, Ragini's Husband
• Vaishu Jayachandhiran as Kavya, Anbarasu's & Radha daughter, Vijay's cousin sister, Ajay's sister
• Vishwa Mithran as Salim, Kumaran's friend
• Padmini Chandrasekhar as Radha - Vijay's aunt
• Bharathi Mohan as Anbarasu, Vijay's Uncle, Radha's husband
• Unknown as Kalyani, Vijay's grandmother

• Saravanan as Santhanam. Ganga, Kaveri, Yamuna and Narmadha's father (2023) (Dead)
• Milla as Fashion Show Judge (2024)
• Kanmani Manoharan as Nivedha/Vennila - Vijay's ex-lover who is in the orphanage suffering from memory loss (2024–present)

The shooting of the serial commenced in December 2022. The first promo was released on 7 January 2023.^[6] The series was also promoted in the Bigg Boss 6 house on 16 January.^[7]

Lakshmi Priya and Prathiba were cast in the female lead roles as Kaveri and Ganga. On 23 November 2023, Prathiba opted out from the show^[8] and was replaced by Divya Ganesan,^[9] However she left the series in August 2024 to gets hospitalized due to Dengue.^[10] So she was replaced by newcomer actress Dharani Hephzibah.^[11] Kamuruddin and newcomer Rudran Praveen portray male lead roles as Kumaran and Nivin respectively, whilst Saravanan and Sujatha Sivakumar were also selected for supporting roles.^[12][13]

On 27 September 2023, Swaminathan, known for his acting in Kaatrukkenna Veli, was introduced as a new male lead, Vijay, for a new storyline with Kaveri.^[14] On 10 July 2024, actress Kanmani Manoharan was cast as special Appearances.^[15]

Following a promo released on 2 February, it was teased that there would be a crossover between Mahanadhi and Aaha Kalyanam.^[16] This was then confirmed with a promo released by Vijay TV, with both families staying at the same resort to compete for 5 lakhs.^[17]

• Mahanadhi at Disney+ Hotstar