Amid the controversy around the recent Bollywood movie Adipurush, which is inspired by the Hindu epic, the iconic mythological teleserial Ramayan from the late 1980s is set to be telecasted again.
Adipurush is a contemporary retelling of the ancient Indian epic Ramayan that recounts the life of Hindu God Lord Rama who goes on to rescue his wife, Sita, from the clutches of the demon King of Lanka, Ravana, with the help of an army of monkeys.
The call for the re-telecast of the popular series on television was made after a huge public uproar over the cringe-worthy dialogues in Adipurush, which was accused of "narrating Ramayan wrong".
Popularity of Ramayan in the 1980s
Back in the 1980s, the fervor for Ramayan among Indians was so intense that every Sunday, right before the new episode aired, the roads would go empty and people would leave their household chores and other tasks, and gather to avidly watch the grand spectacle.
The tele-series featured actor Arun Govil as Lord Rama, actress Deepika Chikhalia as Sita and Sunil Lahri as Lakshmana. Late Dara Singh portrayed Hanumana, and Arvind Trivedi was featured as Ravana.
The show, originally telecast from January 25, 1987, to July 31, 1988, received a massive response from audiences worldwide.
Ramayan entered the Limca Book of Records as the most-watched historical series in the world; it was telecast in 55 countries and at a total viewership of 650 million.
In 2020, during the COVID-induced lockdown, the mythological series was re-telecasted due to public demand on the national channel, Doordarshan.
The re-telecast of the tele-series garnered nearly 2,500 million viewers in 25 days, the highest-ever rating, surpassing other shows.
Adipurush Row
After the release of Adipurush, scores of people criticized the filmmaker Om Raut and the dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir along with the star cast of the movie showcases superstar Prabhas who played Rama, actress Kriti Sanon as Sita, and actor Saif Ali Khan as Ravana.
Several religious officiaries, and netizens among others, demanded a ban on the movie and alleged that the film misrepresented the characters of Ramayana and showed Hindu deities in a "distorted" manner, including the monkey-faced Hindu God Lord Hanumana being shown with a beard and without a mustache.
The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday pulled up makers of the film Adipurush over its dialogues and issued notice to the dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir.
"The nature of dialogues in the film is a big issue. Ramayana is a paragon for us. People read Ramcharitmanas before leaving home," the court said, adding that films shouldn't touch certain things.
They also questioned whether the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), a government regulating body for clearing movies for screening in theatres, had fulfilled its responsibility.
"It's good that people did not harm the law and order situation after watching the film. Lord Hanuman and Sita have been shown like they are nothing," it said
These things should have been removed from the very beginning. Some scenes seem to be for adults only, contended the court. "It's very difficult to watch such films," it observed.
Last week, Nepal’s Pokhara Metropolitan City and Kathmandu Metropolis enforced a ban on the screening of all Indian films over a protest against Adipurush depicting Lord Ram's Sita, as being Indian. Legend has it that Sita was born in Janakpur in present-day Nepal.
Amid all the protests, the makers of the movie changed the dialogue, which led to the Nepal court lifting the ban on Hindi films, including 'Adipurush'.