Blockbuster! Ramayana scripts history with highest viewership on single day - 7.7 crore

Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana that was a popular show during its time, was second time lucky as it garnered unprecedented TRP in its rerun during the coronavirus lockdown. Doordarshan, popularly known as DD took to Twitter to announce that the show attracted 7.7 crore viewers on April 16, making it the most-watched show on a single day.

Aired initially more than three decades ago, the show along with its other popular shows of the 80s such as Mahabharata was rerun from March 28 on public demand. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar announced that the show would be telecast at 9am in the morning and 9pm in the evening.

Also read: Coronavirus effect: Ramayan, Mahabharat make Doordarshan highest-watched channel in India

Directed by Ramanand Sagar, Ramayana features Arun Govil as Ram, Deepika Chikhalia as Sita, Sunil Lahri as Lakshman, Arvind Trivedi as Ravana and Late Dara Singh as Hanuman. Ramayana was originally broadcast from January 25 to July 31 July in 1988.

Also read: Shri Krishna on Doordarshan: Check show timings, when and where to watc h

Mahabharat, directed by BR Chopra features Gajendra Chauhan, Praveen Kumar, Arjun, Sameer Chitre and Sanjeev Chitre as the Pandavas, while Roopa Ganguly plays Draupadi. Nitish Bharadwaj portrays Krishna, Mukesh Khanna is Bhishma Pitamah and Punit Issar portrays the role of Duryodhan.

Also read: Ramayan re-telecast garners record viewership

The reruns of the popular 80s shows pulled up the viewership for DD as well. According to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) the reruns of Mahabharat and Ramayan resulted in nearly 40,000 per cent jump in viewership in the evening and morning bands in the week ended April 3. Not only Ramayana and Mahabharata, DD also telecast other popular shows such as Shaktimaan and Buniyaad. Once the telecast of Ramayana was over, Prasar Bharti announced the rerun of another popular show, Shri Krishna.

Also read: After Ramayana and Mahabharata, Doordarshan to telecast Ramanand Sagar's Shri Krishna