DD’s ‘Ramayan’ Now Creates World Record!

MUMBAI: 'Ramayan', the over three-decade-old popular TV series based on Hindu mythology has now created world record with 7.7 crore viewers on April 16. The show returned to screens on March and airs on DD National twice a day.

Earlier, in the first four shows, Ramayan had garnered 170 million viewers, in the opening week on March 28. This catapulted the Ramanand Sagar production as the highest watched "serial" in the Hindi general entertainment space ever, the Broadcast Audience Research Council said.

Amid the gloomy times of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a lot of thrust laid by the government machinery to popularise the series, the show was re-aired on March 28. There are a total of 78 episodes based on Valmiki Ramayana and Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas.

It was just last month that a photo shared by on-screen Sita, Dipika Chikhlia Topiwala, shared a throwback picture on Instagram that went viral.

The caption read, "Epic pic of the entire team of Ramayan cast and crew. Sagar saab with his son and below them are the direction team and camera team ... Barring Ravan, almost all were there. Only when we look back, do we know what all we have left behind. So many of the cast no more. RIP to them all."

A Sunday morning staple in the 80s, Ramayan, written, produced and directed by Ramanand Sagar, first aired on Doordarshan on January 25, 1987 and continued till July 31, 1988. It clocked 33 years in 2020.

Arun Govil, Dipika Chikhlia Topiwala and Sunil Lahri played the characters of Lord Ram, Sita and Lakshman respectively. The show also featured Lalita Pawar as Manthra, Dara Singh as Hanuman, and Arvind Trivedi as Ravana.

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