Remember when the world came to a halt as Ramayan was telecast on Doordarshan years ago? If not, here is a re-telecast that is still making waves with over 77 million viewsSecond innings, hit again!

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What started off as an entertainment option for the audience in lockdown has become a movement in its own right! With over 77 million views, the re-telecast of Ramayan on Doordarshan has surpassed big shows such as Game of Thrones and Big Bang Theory. In an online interaction, Prem Sagar, son of Ramanand Sagar, who directed the show, says, “The fact that it is seen as much more than entertainment is what made it such a huge hit. The actors who portrayed the roles were no less than Gods for the viewers.”

“There were many complications while filming the show, but what kept Ramanand Sagar going was his high level of motivation to transform it into reality,” adds Prem. This alone drove the late director to surpass all the roadblocks, right from reading all the 14 adaptations of Ramayan, including those in Persian and Sanskrit, to make-do with whatever resources were available in terms of graphics.

The best part about the show was that the image of the lead actors stuck with them for their entire lives. For the uninitiated, Arun Govil played Ram along with Dipika Chikhlia as Sita; Sunil Lahri was Lakshman, Dara Singh played Hanuman and Arvind Trivedi was seen as Raavan.

Maintaining an image

For Dipika, the challenge was to maintain the image of Sita even after the serial got over. She recalls, “Not only me, even other actors were aware of a certain image they were expected to maintain. I was young, but still made public appearances in sarees. I believe every actor took the responsibility.” About the digital audience we have today, she says, “I am surprised that youngsters appreciated me for my performance because when it was telecast at first, viewers were only praising my beauty. It is just that people now recognise me for the artiste I was in Ramayan.”

Sunil Lahri is amazed by the amount of creativity people are putting in by making memes and content on Ramayan. He says, “I share interesting anecdotes from our behind-the-scenes stories on Twitter and have been getting a great response. I also keep a tab on memes and stuff that is trending online.”

No award

So, why no awards or honours, one wonders? Except a Padma Shri for Ramanand Sagar, Ramayan did not receive a single award. Prem adds, “Not only the central government, none of the state governments came forward to appreciate something that represented our culture, tradition and history.”