To keep citizens hooked and busy at their homes during the lockdown, the makers decided the rerun of ’90s mythological shows- Ramayan and Mahabharat. These mythological dramas were aired after 32 years. Ramayan features Arun Govil, Dipika Chikhlia, Sunil Lahri, and late actor Dara Singh. Ever since the shows were aired again on Doordarshan, they received immense love. So much so that Ramayan created a ‘world record’ as 77 million viewers tuned in for the April 16 episode, as announced by Doordarshan.
Soon after Doordarshan claimed it to create the world record, a Live Mint report suggested that it wasn’t the case. The report stated that compared to Ramayan’s April 16 episode, American Series M*A*S*H got some 106 odd million viewers on February 28, 1983, which clearly states that the American series beats Ramayan with huge margin.
Now, creator Ramanand Sagar’s son Prem, Dipika Chikhila who played Sita and Sunil Lahri who played Lakshman in the Ramayan has reacted to the same. Prem told HuffPost India, “At a time when you’ve Netflix, Amazon, this is big. The idea is to bring it (the show) to this generation and teach them. To really bring them back into the fold of ideal living.”
WORLD RECORD!!
— Doordarshan National (@DDNational) April 30, 2020
Rebroadcast of #Ramayana on #Doordarshan smashes viewership records worldwide, the show becomes most watched entertainment show in the world with 7.7 crore viewers on 16th of April pic.twitter.com/hCVSggyqIE
Dipika said “she had no clue” about it. While Sunil responded saying, “M*A*S*H’s record of touching 106 million in 1983 was a combination of “Netflix and Amazon” all put together (the streaming services were launched only post 2010). So in that sense Ramayana has created a bigger impact. It’s a world record in spite of so many options.” (Also Read: Ramayan Trivia: Did You Know Luv-Kush Episode Was Introduced After Ramanand Sagar Received A Call From PMO?)
Images Source: instagram/sagar.world