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Epic comeback
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“Ramayan” will be telecast in a new avatar on the small screen
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Sacred Prime Time The new and old (below) Ram Darbar
The serial that used to bring India to a halt in the late 1980s is back in a new avatar. Yes, Ramayan is back two decades after it revolutionised television viewing in the country to woo the new generation. Again produced by Sagar
Arts, it is going to be the flagship show of the new general entertainment channel NDTV Imagine to be launched on January 21. This time the epic comes in the form of a daily soap and will be telecast during the prime time. The channel is virtually putting a cat among pigeons as the slot is replete with saas-bahu serials during weekdays. “The whole idea is to cut through the clutter. We can’t attract viewership for a new channel with yet another saas-bahu tale,” says Sameer Nair, CEO, NDTV Imagine.
So religion is the only way to consolidate a scattered audience? “We are not looking at it as a mythological serial. For us it is a story, which has the highest mass appeal and the ability to bring the whole family together.”Anand Sagar, who is directing the new Ramayan, and assisted his father, the late Ramanand Sagar on the first version, says television budgets have increased in the last few years. “Today we can afford to use high quality animation and opulent sets.”A visit to the Sagar Film City in Vadodara shows how the Sagars are leaving no stone unturned to recreate the era in the 40 acre facility. Sources say six crores have already been spent. Talking of the contemporary touch, Anand reflects, “For today’s audience we are presenting Ram more as a human being and less as a god.” Gurmeet Choudhary plays Lord Ram, while Debina Bonnerjee plays Sita. The three key characters – Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughan – will be played by Ankit Arora, Vije Bhatia and Lalit Negi, respectively. But for now all of them have been kept under wraps. Another connecting link is the musical score of Ravindra Jain. “I have kept the soul of the original intact, just the words have been changed. Suresh Wadkar and Kavita Krishnamurthy have sung the title track. The effort is to show Ram as an emotional man,” says Jain.
The serial is coming when the Ram setu controversy is on a high and a section is questioning the existence of Ram. Prem says they are creative people and have nothing to do with what the politicians are upto. “We are largely following Tulsi’s ‘Ramcharitmanas’ and Ram setu is very much there.” A master with words Jain plays it down. “To me Ram setu means Ram se tu (you are because of Ram) and not the other way round.”
ANUJ KUMAR
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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