On Friday, the official X handle of state broadcaster Doordarshan announced that Ramanand Sagar’s iconic show based on the Hindu Epic Ramayan will be retelecasted on DD National twice a day from February 5. One episode of the show will air in the evening between 6 pm to 7 am while the repeat telecast will be broadcast in the afternoon between 12 pm to 1 pm.
रिपु रन जीति सुजस सुर गावत।
— Doordarshan National दूरदर्शन नेशनल (@DDNational) February 2, 2024
सीता सहित अनुज प्रभु आवत॥
आ गए हैं प्रभु श्री राम! एक बार फिर वापस आ गया है पूरे भारत का सबसे लोकप्रिय शो 'रामायण'। रामानंद सागर की रामायण एक बार फिर #DDNational पर देखिए 5 फरवरी से प्रतिदिन शाम 6 बजे और पुनः प्रसारण दोपहर 12 बजे। #Ramayan |… pic.twitter.com/8EIZjMgCyu
Ramayan, an iconic show from the 80s and 90s, features Arun Govil as Shri Ram, Deepika Chikhalia as Maa Sita, and Sunil Lahri as Brother Lakshman. The show was widely popular and attracted unprecedented viewership when it was first telecasted.
The announcement comes weeks after the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Mandir concluded on January 22, when an enthralling idol of Lord Ram as a five-year-old child and oozing divinity was installed at the majestic new temple. An elaborate ceremony was organised to mark the event, with eminent personalities in attendance. PM Modi attended the event as a Yajman for the Pran Pratishtha ceremony. UP CM Yogi Adityanath and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat were also present on the occasion.
Notably, Ramayan was also retelecasted during the first lockdown announced by the Centre in March 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. During that time, the retelecast created quite a flutter, with the first episode crashing Doordarshan’s website and becoming the top-searched item on Google India. It had trended at the top on social media platforms.
Ramayan on Doordarshan had attracted viewership from all sections of the population and millennials were hooked as well. Memes, jokes and discussions regarding the show flooded social media platforms. There were apprehensions that the re-telecast may not be very popular given the advancement of cinematography techniques, computer graphics and the changing taste of viewers, but Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan smashed all speculations and became one of the most-watched shows in the history of Indian television.
The popular television show ‘Ramayan’ based on Valmiki’s Epic Ramayana has become the highest-viewed entertainment program globally. It registered record-breaking viewership and created a world record when 77 million people watched the show in a single day. The record was created on the 16th of April at 9 p.m. Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan aired on Doordarshan for the first time between 1987 and 1988. The show features Arun Govil, Deepika Chikhalia, Sunil Lahri, Arvind Trivedi, Sanjay Jog, Sameer Rajda, Dara Singh and Bal Dhuri in lead roles.
