Ramayan made stars out of Arun Govil, Deepika Chikhalia and Sunil Lahri, known to fans as Lord Ram, Sita and Lakshman, clocked 33 years
New Delhi| India’s public broadcasting agency Prasar Bharati on Friday said it will re-telecast the popular 80’s teleserial ‘Ramayan’ from March 28 during the 21-day nationwide lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted on Friday announcing the re-run of the Tv show “on public demand.” One episode each will be aired from 9 am and 9 pm on DD National.
Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar said on Twitter, “A dedicated team of DD officers worked through the day yesterday and through the night to make this happen even as they stayed away from home and their families. Kudos to the entire team who worked on a war footing in response to immense demand from the viewers to watch the epic.”
Earlier, Shekhar conveyed that they were in talks with the copyright-holders of the TV show, originally directed by Ramanand Sagar.
In a response to a tweet by Akhilesh Sharma, political editor at NDTV India, Shekhar said,”Yes we are working on the same with the Rights Holders. Will update shortly. Stay tuned.”
With India coming to a standstill owing to the national lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, many on social media have written how the teleserial was hugely popular at one time.
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People also noted how life on Sunday mornings would come to a standstill when this serial was telecast on Doordarshan National in 1987.
Ramanand Sagar’s “Ramayan” starred Arun Govil as Ram and Deepika Chikhalia as Sita, with Arvind Trivedi playing Raavan and Dara Singh essaying Hanuman. The series originally ran from 25 January 1987 to 31 July 1988.
Written, produced and directed by Ramanand Sagar, the ensemble cast of the show included actors such as Dara Singh, who played Hanuman, Lalita Pawar was cast as Manthara, Vijay Arora played Indrajit, and Arvind Trivedi played Ravana.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a national lockdown for 21 days and said no one must leave their homes in that timeframe. The coronavirus has infected over 529,000 worldwide. India has over 700 positive cases of the virus so far.
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