Ramayan (2008 TV series)
| Ramayan | |
|---|---|
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| Created by | Sagar Arts |
| Directed by | Anand Sagar |
| Starring | See Below |
| Opening theme | Jai Shri Ram By Suresh Wadkar and Kavita Krishnamurthy |
| Composer(s) | Ravindra Jain |
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language(s) |
Hindi Telugu Tamil Malayalam Gujarati. |
| No. of episodes | 300 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Rakesh Jain |
| Producer(s) |
Subhash Sagar Prem Sagar Moti Sagar |
| Editor(s) | Pappu Trivedi |
| Running time | 20 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | NDTV Imagine |
| Original release | January 21, 2008 – June 26, 2009 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Ramayan, based on Valmiki's Ramayan and Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas, as well as Chakbasta's Urdu Ramayan, is an Indian television series produced by Sagar Arts which aired on NDTV Imagine. It is also partly derived from portions of Kambar's Kambaramayanam, Bhavarth Ramayan (Ramayana in Marathi), Krittivasi Ramayan (Ramayana in Bengali) by Krittibas Ojha, Shree Rangnath Ramayana (Ramayana in Telugu) by Gona Budda Reddy, Ramchandra Charit Puranam (in Kannad) by Abhinavpamp Nagchandra, Adhyatama Ramayanam (in Malayalam) by Tunjath Ezhuthachan, Shree Anand Ramayan by Pt. Ramlagna Pandey.
It is a remake of the highly successful Ramayan that was created, written, and directed by Ramanand Sagar and which aired on Doordarshan from 1987 to 1988.
The show won the "Most Promising New Show of the Year" award at the Indiantelevision.com's New Talent Awards. In addition to this, Gurmeet Choudhary, who played the lead role of Lord Rama won the "Most Promising New Talent of Tomorrow" Award.
Historical synopsis
Ramayan tells the story of Lord Ram who was the eldest of the four sons of Dasharatha, the King of Ayodhya. Ram was to become the King of Ayodhya after his father’s retirement. But his stepmother, Kaikeyi, whose mind was poisoned by Manthara, wanted her son Bharat to become the king.
Remembering that Dasharatha had once promised to grant her any two boons she demanded Dasharatha that Lord Ram should be banished to the forest for fourteen years and Bharat should be crowned as the king. The helpless and heartbroken Dasharatha had to keep his word. So, he asks Ram to leave for the forest by keeping a stone on his heart. Lord Ram happily accepts the exile and leaves for the forest and is accompanied by his dutiful wife, Mata Sita and younger brother Lakshman. When Bharat learns that his mother is responsible for Lord Ram's exile, he requests Lord Ram to return to Ayodhya. But, when Lord Ram refuses to do so Bharat obtains Lord Ram's charan paduka and places them on the throne as a gesture that Lord Ram is the true king.
Bharat then rules Ayodhya as a representative of Lord Ram for the next fourteen years. Later, Ravan, the evil King of Lanka, abducts Mata Sita. How Lord Ram and Lakshman along with Lord Hanuman and his vanar sena rescues Mata Sita, and how Lord Ram slays Ravan forms the rest of the story.
Cast
| Portrayed By | Character | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gurmeet Choudhary | Lord Rama | Male Lead Protagonist. Eldest Son of Kaushalya and Dasharatha. King of Ayodhya and also an avatar of Lord Vishnu. | |
| Lord Vishnu | Parallel Male Protagonist and of which Lord Ram is a part of (Ram is an avatar of Lord Vishnu). | ||
| Debina Bonnerjee | Sita | Female Lead Protagonist. Wife of Lord Ram and daughter of the earth goddess Bhūmi and the adopted daughter of King Janaka of Mithila. | |
| Rishabh Sharma | Kush | One of the twin sons of Rama and Sita. Twin brother of Luv. | |
| Perin Monish Malde | Luv | One of the twin sons of Rama and Sita. Twin brother of Kush. | |
| Ankit Arora | Lakshman | Brother and close companion of Rama. He is the twin brother of Shatrughna, born to Sumitra, the second wife of Dasharatha, his father. Thus, Lakshman is the third eldest son of Dashratha. | |
| Vikram Sharma | Hanuman | Hanuman is an ardent devotee of Rama and a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana. A general among the vanaras, Hanuman is a disciple of Lord Rama in the war against the demon king Ravan. | |
| Akhilendra Mishra | Ravan | Primary Antagonist. King of Lanka and brother of Surpanakha. | |
| Ashok Banthia | Viswamitra | A Sage who takes Rama and Lakshman to protect his rituals, in the course of time he took both of them to Janakpuri, to attend Sita swayamvar. | |
| Punkaj Kalraa | Dasharatha | Father of Ram and his brothers. | |
| Vije Bhatia | Bharat | Brother of Rama, and the son of Dasaratha and Kaikeyi. He is the second eldest son of Dasharatha. | |
| Lalit Negi | Shatrughna | Brother of Rama and son of Dasaratha, and his third wife, Sumitra. He is the youngest son of Dasharatha. | |
| Rajni Chandra | Kaushalya | The eldest of King Daśaratha's three wives, she was the daughter of the King of the Kosala Kingdom. She was the mother of Rama. A queen of Ayodhya. | |
| Jaya Ojha | Mandodari | Queen Consort of Ravana. | |
| Hemakshi Ujjain | Kaikeyi | One of the three wives of Dasharatha and mother of Bharata. A queen of Ayodhya. | |
| Sangeeta Kapure | Sumitra | One of the three wives of Dasharatha and mother of twins, Shatrughna and Lakshmana. A queen of Ayodhya. | |
| Vinod Kapoor | Vibhishan | He was the younger half brother of the Rakshasa (demon) king Ravana of Lanka. Though a Rakshasa himself, Vibhishana was of a noble character and advised Ravana, who kidnapped and abducted Sita, to return her to her husband Rama in an orderly fashion and promptly. When his brother did not listen to his advice, Vibhishana joined Rama's army. Later, when Rama defeated Ravana, Rama crowned Vibhishana as the king of Lanka. | |
| Praphulla Pandey | Meghnad | A warrior mentioned in the Indian epic Ramayana, was the son of the Lankan king Ravana. | |
| Rakesh Deewana | Kumbhakarna | He is a demon and brother of Ravana in the Indian Ramayana epic. Despite his monstrous size and great hunger, he was described to be of good character, though he killed and ate many Hindu monks just to show his power. | |
| Paras Arora | Lord Rama | Male Lead Protagonist. Eldest Son of Kaushalya and Dasharatha. King of Ayodhya and also an avatar of Lord Vishnu. | Lord Vishnu]]. |
Production
Omang Kumar designed the sets and Nisha Sagar designed the costumes. Anand Sagar, son of late Ramanand Sagar, directed the series having worked on the script for about six months with this team. The series was shot at "Sagar Film City" in Baroda.
Music
Ravindra Jain, who composed music for the original series, Ramayan (1987-88) TV Series returned as composer with Kavita Subramaniam, Suresh Wadkar, and others as playback singers. An audio CD with 17 bhajans from the series was released in 2009 with lyrics/music by Jain and voice talents of singers Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Subramaniam, Sadhana Sargam, Satish Dehra, Pamela Jain, Ravi Tripathi, Amaye Daate, Rekha Rao, Prem Prakash, Kuldeep, Subhash Srivastav, Sanket, and the composer himself.
Dubbed versions
NDTV Imagine which originally airs Ramayan has struck a syndication deal with UTV Software Communications which allows it to air Dubbed versions of Ramayan on Sun TV Network. As part of the deal, NDTV Imagine will also get a revenue share from UTV after the earnings reach a particular level. UTV has paid a telecast fee to Sun for acquiring the prime time slot on the network channels. It will have the rights to sell air time.
Malayalam version
The Malayalam version of Ramayan was a daily which aired on Surya TV from Monday to Friday at 6.30 pm. Unni Menon sang the songs in the Malayalam version along with various other female artists.
Tamil version
Ramayan was dubbed into Tamil.
It was originally aired (as Ramayana) on Sun TV on all Sundays 9.30 AM to 10.30 AM in India and 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM in America.
It is currently aired on Jaya TV.
Telugu version
The Telugu version aired on Gemini TV.
Kannada version
Udaya TV, Sun TV's Kannada channel was unable to air the Kannada version because Karnataka does not permit dubbed content on television.
Gujarati version
The Gujarati version aired on ETV Gujarati.