Ramayan breaks world record, becomes most-watched entertainment show globally: Doordarshan

The popular mythological series, 'Ramayan', which is being rebroadcasted on Doordarshan during the Coronavirus lockdown days to great appeal has smashed viewership records worldwide. 'Ramayan', the Ramanand Sagar-directed TV serial became the world's most-watched show on April 16 with 7.7 crore viewers, DD India posted on its official Twitter handle on Thursday.

The plot of the series is based on the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana and the series follows the journey of Lord Rama.

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A total of 78 episodes of 'Ramayan' were made by Ramanand Sagar based on Valmiki's Ramayana and Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas. The serial is being re-telecast again since March 28 on public demand as a source of entertainment during the COVID-19 lockdown days. When the serial was telecasted for the first time on DD, it had broken all records of popularity, and the show has repeated its history again.

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When the serial had initially started airing in the country, people used to flock to their TV sets, which were much sparser at that time. Since there were fewer TVs, many would watch as communities, with there being moving accounts of people reacting to events on the show as though they believed what was playing out before them was the 'real' Ramayana rather than a TV serial, as the lines between reality, fiction, makebelieve and mythology blurred and devotion peaked.

 'Ramayan' serial was originally broadcasted from January 25, 1987, to July 31, 1988. Later it was aired on TV every Sunday, at 9.30 am. Till June 2003, it remained recorded in the Limca Book of Records as "the most-watched mythological serial in the world".

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