On Friday, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted to say that On Public Demand, Ramayan will now air on DD National twice a day starting Saturday (March 28). Earlier this week, as India prepared for a 21-day lockdown against the #Coronavirus, Twitter was flooded with messages asking for reruns of Ramayan and B R Chopra’s Mahabharat, which was telecast after Ramayan ended in 1988.
“Happy to announce that on public demand, we are starting Ramayan re-telecast from tomorrow, Saturday, March 28 on DD National. One episode in the morning from 9 am to 10 am, another in the evening from 9 pm to 10 pm,” Mr. Javadekar wrote in his tweet. Ramayan, which made stars out of Arun Govil, Deepika Chikhalia and Sunil Lahri, known to fans as Lord Ram, Sita, and Lakshman, clocked 33 years of the show this year.
Happy to announce that on public demand, we are starting retelecast of ‘Ramayana’ from tomorrow, Saturday March 28 in DD National, One episode in morning 9 am to 10 am, another in the evening 9 pm to 10 pm.@narendramodi
@PIBIndia@DDNational— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) March 27, 2020
The cast of Ramayan made an appearance on The Kapil Sharma Show earlier this month and photos of the onscreen Ram, Sita and Lakshman’s reunion after decades sent the Internet into a tizzy. On Kapil Sharma show, the Ramayan actors made several ROFL revelations. Arun Govil, now 71, confessed that there was the point of time when he felt “itchy by just seeing the costumes.”
Written, produced and directed by Ramanand Sagar, the ensemble cast of the show included actors such as Dara Singh, who played Hanuman, Lalita Pawar was cast as Manthara, Vijay Arora played Indrajit, and Arvind Trivedi played Ravana.