Epic Comeback: Will new-look Ramayan work?

If you're in your twenties, chances are your parents have told you the story. The streets cleared out at 10 minutes to nine every Friday night and the same tune would emanate from every home -- the theme music of Ramayan, the ambitious TV series based on Valmiki's Ramayana and Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas.

It was the mother of all TV soaps, the mega mythological that three generations sat down to watch together. Twenty years later, Ramayan returns to television with grander sets and new faces, and hoping to grab the attention of a new generation - a generation of channel-surfers.

“Thirty-eight million people are below the age of 20. They have just heard that streets used to be empty, traffic used to stop and that even in Karachi it used to be the same. Now this generation needs to experience the same magic,” says producer, Ramayan, Prem Sagar.

Cosmetic, superficial changes notwithstanding, the new Ramayan is expected to have the same spirit as the original one and will be told in much the same melodramatic style, say the show's producers, the Sagars, who also produced the original show in 1988.

For die-hard mythological fans – like your grandparents for example – the most obvious change will be the absence of familiar faces. Don't expect to see old favourites Arun Govil and Deepika playing Ram and Sita, and no chances of Dara Singh returning as Hanuman.

While Gurmeet Choudhary plays Ram, Dibani Bonnerjee takes over Sita’s mantle from Deepika. Ankit Arora plays Lakshman and Lalit Negi is Shatrughan.

Courtesy:ibnlive.com
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