DD's 'Ramayan' garners highest ratings for a Hindi GEC show since 2015

Late Ramanand Sagar's mythological serial "Ramayan", which is over three-decade-old, made a historic comeback on the small screen by garnering highest ratings for a Hindi GEC show since 2015.

Amid the ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown, the evergreen series was re-telecast on Doordarshan on public demand. The re-run started last Saturday.

According to a report by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), "Ramayan" garnered 170 million viewers in four shows over the last weekend.

The Ramanand Sagar production also became the highest watched serial in the Hindi general entertainment space. The show was the highest rated in urban and megacities.

The report noted that the four episodes of "Ramayan" garnered an average of 28.7 million impressions. All the four episodes of "Ramayan" garnered 6.9 billion viewing minutes, adding that on an average each episode of "Ramayan" got 42.6 million tune-ins. The report went live on Thursday.

"Ramayan" is an Indian historical-drama epic television series, which aired during 1987-1988, created, written, and directed by Ramanand Sagar. The show was a television adaptation of the ancient Indian Hindu epic of the same name.

The show was a game-changer for Indian television, hooking the nation to the show. Sunday mornings were never the same for families in India after the first episode of "Ramayan" aired on television. The impact was such that the actors associated with the show, continue to live under the shadow of their characters, with people remembering them for the roles they played in the show, which narrated the life story of Lord Rama and Sita.

The role of Ram was played by Arun Govil, Sita played by Deepika Chikhalia, Lakshman was played by Sunil Lahiri, Hanuman by late Dara Singh, and Ravan by Arvind Trivedi. It also featured Sanjay Jog, late Vijay Arora, Sameer Rajda, late Mulraj Rajda and late Lalita Pawar.