Are there Indians who think the Mahabharata is real?

So I am currently reading the Mahabharata (and I will just say, I'm enjoying it a great deal).

I'm a teacher, and I brought the book to class to read during some down time periods. At one point, one of my students, an Indian boy (he's 8), comes up to me and points to it. He says it's a really cool book, and we talk a little about it. Then I say,

"It's been a long time since I have read a fictional book." (I read a lot, but it's mostly history and other social studies related activities)

The kid low-key kind of flips out. He raises his voice and says that the Mahabharata is real and of course everything in that book really happened. He wasn't super angry, but he's also incredibly well behaved so seeing him raise his voice at all was extremely surprising.

So is this one Indian kid with an overactive imagination, or are there Indians who actually think this?