They say `Old is Gold’. And Ramayana, the Indian mythological television series is proving the adage right. The Ramanand Sagar created TV series aired in 1987-1988 on DD National. It is now being re-run on DD (since March 28) after public demand during the 21 day lockdown period in India.
Thirty years ago just within a couple of episodes, Sagar’s Ramayana had become a national sensation by clocking viewership of around 650 million, (82 per cent viewership) telecast in 55 different countries and becoming the highest grosser show on Indian television. History is repeating itself as the show has garnered record ratings in the Hindi GEC entertainment category.
As per the data released by Broadcast Audience Research Council-Nielsen (BARC) the show has garnered 560 million impressions in the morning slot and 835 million in the night slot.
People living in cities have almost forgotten Doordarshan as they’re busy lapping up content on private channels and now binge watching shows on OTT apps. But now just sitting at home, one can hear the beautiful title song…` Mangal Bhavan Amangal haari.. Drawahu su dashrath achar bihari composed by Ravindra Jain echoing around the housing societies.
In the Hindu way of life, it is believed that the `life drama repeats itself’. One can see many things common panning out across these three decades. The roads are empty now and roads were empty then. As Soutik Biswas of BBC recalled in his writings that when the series was telecast every Sunday morning, “streets would be deserted, shops would be closed and people would bathe and garland their TV sets before the serial began.”
There used to be a sudden hush in the busy markets as hundreds of people gathered around a tv set in villages to get a darshan of the gods themselves. It featured Arun Govil as Ram, Deepika Chikhalia as Sita and Sunil Lahri as Lakshman. The show also featured Late Dara Singh as Hanuman and Arvind Trivedi as Ravana.The sets of Ramayana were set up in Umargam near Surat.
Arun Govil’s godly and pious smile all through the show and Deepika’s simple, serene, innocent and sweet voice has won a million hearts.
The TV adaptation is based on Valmiki’s Ramayana and Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas. Viewers considered the show as sacred; as if they were being given ‘darshan’ by the gods themselves.
Doordarshan regains its glory
We can safely say that the Coronavirus pandemic has turned the tables for Doordarshan, which has regained its old glory now. Due to the pandemic, the broadcaster has also started showing old and popular shows again like Buniyaaad, Chanakya, Shaktimaan, Circus which launched Shahrukh Khan.
Shashi Shekhar Vempati, head of Doordarshan’s parent Prasar Bharati tweeted, “A Big Thank You to all the viewers of Doordarshan – per @BARCIndia the most viewed channel during week 13 is @DDNational across India. With your support Public Broadcaster has helped India Stay Home, Stay Safe as we fight back #COVID-19 pandemic.
The viewership of Ramayana increased by 454 times in the morning and evening slots together. Shaktimaan, the popular series with the Indian version of Superman, increased as much as 52-fold to 20.8 million impressions.
Byomkesh Bakshi, the Indian Sherlock Holmes has also made up for an 11 percent jump, and Buniyaad, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Circus have given an eight-fold boost.
Happy watching is we say!