Prem Sagar says he asked Sunil Lahri to 'take off his shirt' during Ramayan casting: 'Wanted to see his torso...'

The son of renowned filmmaker and creator of the TV series Ramayan, Ramanand Sagar, Prem Sagar recently got candid about how they cast for their humungous mythological project Ramayan. Released on Doordarshan and the first episode aired on 25 January 1987, the show is about Lord Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, who goes into exile due to his father’s promise. Later, Ravana kidnaps Sita and Rama wages a war against him to rescue her and returns to Ayodhya to be crowned king. Now, in an interview with Lehren, Prem Sagar opened up about the casting process for the epic mythological saga and shared some hilarious anecdotes from that time. Despite repeating the cast from Vikram Bethal in Ramayan, Prem talked about how thorough everyone was with the casting process to ensure accuracy in the storytelling.

Prem recalled how Sunil Lahri , who played Laxman in the show, reacted when he asked to take off his shirt during the casting process. He said, “He (Sunil) came to my cabin, I said, “Take off your shirt.” Sunil then told Prem, “I felt very funny.” Prem then continued, “I wanted to see his torso. Arun Govil had the perfect torso. Between his two shoulders and his belly button, it was an equilateral triangle. He was the perfect guy and we selected him and he fitted Ram so perfectly.” Prem also shared how convincing the role of Arun Govil as Rama was. Discussing his everlasting impact because of the character Prem said, “You won’t believe, in Umber village, tribal women would bring their sick children and put them in front of Arun’s feet. And can you believe, the child would even become fine and recover. They use their own energy, Ram did nothing, but that was the impact of Arun Govil, which is there even today.” Prem Sagar revealed that Team Vikram Bethal was repeated in Ramayan, including the actors and editors. Ramayan showed Arun as Ram, Dipika Chikhlia as Sita, Sunil Lahri as Laxman and Arvind Trivedi as Ravan.