Fans will soon be able to see Ramayan, a well-liked Hindi TV programme, again on small screen. According to Shemaroo TV, the mythology programme will start broadcasting on the channel on July 3. In the 1980s television programme, Sunil Lahiri played Lakshman, while Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhlia respectively played the main characters of Ram and Sita.
The rerun’s announcement comes as Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan is being contrasted with the recently released movie Adipurush. Adipurush, which claims to be based on the Hindu epic Ramayana, has drawn harsh criticism for its inaccurate depiction of the main characters Ram, Sita, Hanuman, and Ravan. In the movie, which came out earlier this month, Prabhas, Kriti Sanon, Devdatta Nage, and Saif Ali Khan all play their various characters.
The broadcaster shared a brief clip from the TV show on its social media accounts and wrote: “World famous mythological serial Ramayan is back for all the fans and our audience. Watch it from July 3, 7.30pm, on your favourite channel Shemaroo TV).”
Fans of the show swamped the comment section when the station first announced that it will be rerunning Ramayan and remarked it was ideal for the “virus of Adipurush.” Someone wrote, “Wah shemaroo tv adipurush ka virus nikalne ke liye (Wow, this will chuck out the virus of Adipurush).”
Reacting to the errors shown in Adipurush, Ramanand Sagar’s son Prem Sagar spoke to ANI and mentioned, “Manoj Muntashir is well-informed about Hinduism. I don’t understand how he even conceived such dialogues in the film. It might be a misjudgment that the younger generation would like it. But you can’t do this with the audience. Don’t say it is based on Valmiki Ramayan, give it any other name. Make it a fantasy film. But if you’re making Ramayan then you cannot hurt the sentiments. People watch this with devotion.”