Arun Govil & the Ramayan legacy: Why he remains TV’s most favourite Ram

India witnessed a grand inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya earlier this week. From top actors, politicians and entrepreneurs to sportspersons, several prominent personalities attended the consecration ceremony of the temple in Uttar Pradesh. Among the attendees was the cast of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan – actors Arun Govil, Dipika Chikhlia and Sunil Lahri. This 1980s adaptation of the Hindu epic remains relevant to this day, with these actors still known for their roles across India. Let’s take a closer look. Ramayan’s popularity in the 1980s Ramayan aired on Doordarshan for 78 weeks between 1987 and 1988. The show earned so much popularity that it had a viewership of 85 per cent at the time, with around 80 million to 100 million people reportedly watching it. Ramanand Sagar’s TV adaptation of the Hindu epic used to turn several parts of India into a ghost town during its broadcast on Sunday mornings, as per BBC. As per an excerpt from Amrita Shah’s book Telly-Guillotined How Television Changed India published in Scroll, the popularity of the TV series was such that ministers were late for their oath-taking ceremony, brides refused to participate in wedding rituals until the end of the episode, and so on. In Meerut, residents successfully got the authorities to change the load-shedding timing, as it clashed with Ramayan’s transmission time, reported India Today. “Familiarity rather than novelty appeared to be the key to its success,” says the book about the TV show.

The story of Ram, a young prince from Ayodhya, and his victory over Ravana is a tale possibly known in every household in India. The original Ramayan is believed to have been written by sage Valmiki between 1500 and 200 BC. It has since been composed and rewritten multiple times. According to the late author, RK Narayan, who produced his own English version of the epic, “India is a land of many languages, each predominant in a particular area and in each one of them a version of the Ramayana is available, original and brilliant and appealing to the millions of readers who know the language.” From paintings to Ram Leelas, the Hindu epic has continued to capture the imagination of the country throughout the years. What made TV show Ramayan unique? Over the years, Ramayan has been interpreted numerous times on television and in films. However, Ramanand Sagar’s TV series, which BBC describes as a “once-in-a-generation phenomenon”, remains evergreen. According to Shah’s book, the 1980s Ramayana “bore the unmistakeable stamp of Hindi cinema.” “Mythologicals though irregular were a familiar genre in Indian cinema and were characterised by a heavy reliance on trick photography, theatrics, garish colour and emotive music,” the author wrote. About Rs 9 lakh was spent per episode to make the TV serial in the 1980s. During its first re-run, it brought Rs 23 crore revenue to Doordarshan, as per a report in India Today magazine. Actors portraying Lord Ram on screen are still compared to Arun Govil . Dipika Chikhlia’s Sita and Sunil Lahri’s Lakshman continue to grab the attention of audiences. The show was so famous among people irrespective of their religion that as per an account by Mark Tully in his No Full Stops in India, fan letters poured in from Christians, Muslims and Sikhs for the actors and the show’s maker. The actors who played the Hindu deities in the TV show gained overnight celebrity status and came to be revered as Gods. In Gujarat’s Umbergaon, where the serial was shot, villagers from nearby places used to kneel before Govil who played Lord Ram, reported India Today. “At functions really grown-up people come and touch your feet,” Dipika who played Sita reportedly told Tully previously. The show has been telecast in 53 countries and has been viewed by 650 million viewers globally, India Today reported citing BBC. Ramayan remains a classic Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan made a comeback during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the majority of Indians were cooped up inside their houses during the nationwide lockdown, the rerun of the Hindu epic made people, including the younger generation, glue to their TV sets. Aired in 2020, the first four episodes of Ramayan were watched by 170 million (17 crore) viewers, making the state-run broadcaster, Doordarshan National, the most-watched TV channel in India, reported BBC. As of 16 April 2020, the rerun of TV show was seen by 7.7 crore viewers, which made it the “most-watched entertainment show in the world”, DD India declared at the time.

WORLD RECORD!!
Rebroadcast of #Ramayana on #Doordarshan smashes viewership records worldwide, the show becomes most watched entertainment show in the world with 7.7 crore viewers on 16th of April pic.twitter.com/hCVSggyqIE

— Doordarshan National दूरदर्शन नेशनल (@DDNational) April 30, 2020

The appeal of fantasy along with nostalgia seemed to have propelled the show back to the limelight over three decades later. Following the success of the reruns, Govil recalled that the popularity of the show in the 80s led to “both good and bad things” for him. “I got a lot of respect and honour but I was completely distanced from commercial films. All the producers and directors would tell me that my image of Lord Ram had became so strong that they would wonder what role to cast me in for. ‘People see only Lord Ram in you, they don’t see any other character’ is what they said,” he said in an interview with Rajshri Unplugged. Govil’s Ram is still considered the best portrayal of the deity on screen. Prabhas-starrer Adipurush failed to engage audiences and even other adaptations of the Hindu epic have not been able to touch the benchmark set by Sagar’s Ramayan. Now, Ranbir Kapoor is all set to play the role of Lord Ram in Nitish Tiwari’s upcoming film Ramayan. The comparisons to Govil have already begun. It remains to be seen if the Animal actor will be able to pull it off. With inputs from agencies