As we all know, recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a complete nationwide lockdown for the next 21-days and due to the coronavirus pandemic, the entertainment industry in Mumbai has postponed the shooting of all the movies and TV serials too. As a result, shows have run out of their episode bank.
The television show makers are doing all that they can keep their fans interested and entertained during the time of the lockdown. Now, Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar indicated that iconic mythology shows of the 80s ‘Mahabharata’ and ‘Ramayana’ may re-run to the small screen.
Shashi Shekhar, CEO of Prasar Bharati said, “Yes we are working on the same with the Rights Holders. Will update shortly. Stay tuned.”
Here’s the tweet:
On the other hand, The shows ran on Doordarshan for the longest period of time and were huge TRP rakers. Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Ramayana’ starred Arun Govil as Ram and Deepika Chikhalia as Sita, with Arvind Trivedi performing Raavan and Dara Singh essaying Hanuman. The series basically ran from 25 January 1987 to 31 July 1988.
Whereas, BR Chopra’s ‘Mahabharata’ featured Nitish Bhardwaj as Krishna and Roopa Ganguly as Draupadi, with Gajendra Chauhan, Praveen Kumar, Arjun, Sameer Chitre and Sanjeev Chitre as the Pandavas, and Punit Issar playing Duryodhana. It ran originally from 2 October 1988 to 24 June 1990.
These shows ran on Doordarshan for the longest duration of time and were huge TRP rakers. Recently the cast of Ramayana reunited on ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ to celebrate 33 years of its airing.
Well, it will be interesting to see these two shows making a comeback on television.