Published 10:53 IST, May 18th 2020
When Ramayan team refused BBC's bait after visit to UK, and foreign media mocked the show
'Ramayan' team had refused BBC's 'bait' after visit to its studios in UK as they wanted Arun Govil to be paraded in the studio in his getup, Prem Sagar shared.
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Ramayan turned out to be huge phenomenon on its re-telecast on Indian TV. The serial didn't just break records in viewership in India but also witnessed one of the highest-watched seasons around the world, en excess of numerous international shows. The response was on similar lines during the ‘80s and the ‘90s when the show made global headlines.
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Foreign media on Ramayan
Even British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) noticed the buzz that Ramayan was creating and wanted to telecast it on the channel. Director Ramanand Sagar’s son Prem Sagar recently opened up in an interview with a magazine how the incident did not end on a smooth note for the makers.
Sagar Jr was asked during the recently interview on The Washington Post wrtiing that Ramayan being viewed on a massive scale now was ‘due to a captive audience thanks to Corona’. He answered that the ‘foreign media was biased’, since all channels also had a similar situation, but Doordarshan managed to rise from last on the charts to the top.
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Prem Sagar shared that at that time The Washington Post had sent two journalists to interview him. He recalled how they were ‘driping honey’ during the interactions, but went back and ‘wrote trash’, unlike the discussions till then.
The director added that a similar incident took place with BBC, as they were keen to buy the telecast rights for its Asian population. He, along with his father Ramanand Sagar, lead actor Arun Govil and Arvind Trivedi, who played Raavan, had visited their studios in Liverpool to sign the contract. The channel, however, had a condition that Arun Govil be paraded across the studio, dressed in his Lord Ram avatar, so that they could film it for the telecast.
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Prem Sagar revealed that he and his father felt it was a ‘calculated attempt to break the image’ of Lord Ram, which he termed as ‘divine’ and worshipped in ‘every grain of soil’ in India. He recalled how they ‘refused the bait’ and after a intense exchange across their studios, the channel decided to not sign the contract.
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Prem Sagar shared that BBC instead went for Mahabharat which had ‘negativity’ with everyone’s battle to win the crown, as compared to 'Maryada Purushotham' Ram and Sanatan values of Ramayan, in which all characters are an ‘epitome of sacrifice.’ He added that characters like Bharat, who worships the padukas of Lord Ram and places it on his throne, was ‘unacceptable’ to the foreign media.
Meanwhile, the success of Ramayan made stars like Arun Govil, Dipika Chikhlia and Sunil Lahri household names once again. The success of the show, even led to a newer version of Ramayan, that was directed by Prem Sagar, being telecast again. This version had starred Gurmeet Choudhary and Debina Bonnerjee in the role of Ram and Sita.
10:53 IST, May 18th 2020