NEW DELHI: Cooped up at home because of the lockdown and getting bored? No worries! Doordarshan will air Ramayan and Mahabharat, the popular mythological series which had the nation captivated in the late Eighties.
Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted on Friday that the Ramayan was being telecast on public demand.
“Happy to announce that on public demand, we are starting re-telecast of Ramayana from tomorrow, Saturday, March 28 on DD National, one episode in the morning — 9 am to 10 am, another in the evening — 9 pm to 10 pm,” he tweeted.
Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati told this newspaper that the broadcaster received overwhelming demand from citizens.
Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan originally ran from January 25, 1987 to July 31, 1988 on Sunday mornings.
Aired across 55 countries, it clogged a total viewership of 650 million. Each of the 75 episodes was of 35 minutes’ duration. B R Chopra’s Mahabharat ran between October 2, 1988 and June 24, 1990, with each episode running for over an hour.
Other shows being considered to be aired on DD National are Basu Chatterjee directed detective series Byomkesh Bakshi and Shahrukh Khan-starrer Circus, said Vempati. DD Bharati will run the mythological series Chanakya and Upanishad Ganga.