Do you know how many versions of Ramayan Ramanand Sagar had read before making his epic TV show?

The epic mythological tale of Ramayan has been regaling audiences across the country with its timeless narrative. For any successful project, there is a lot of research that is undertaken, Ramayan was no different. The visionary maker Ramanand Sagar too did extensive research before embarking on this ambitious project. There's an interesting story on how Ramanand Sagar took a decision to create a show around the immortal story of Lord Ram, and the sheer research that the creator did to bring the mythological TV serial on screen will leave you gobsmacked.

Well known for his ambitious film projects, in 1967, when Ramanand was shooting for one of them in Switzerland, and was sitting in a caf discussing various aspects, the talented filmmaker took a decision to make Ramayan, and said, "My life's mission is to bring to mankind the virtuous story of Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram." He started in-depth research for structuring the storyline for Ramayan. He spent hours reading religious texts and successfully read through 14 different versions of Ramayan before finalizing Ramcharitmanas as the one that would be referred to. An astounding feat for sure! No wonder the show has been appreciated time and again.

Recently, Sunil Lahri, who had essayed the role of Lakshman on the show, got candid about Ramanand Sagar in an exclusive interview with BollywoodLife, and said, "Ramanand Sagar Ji was a visionary for his times. But he was the coolest filmmaker/director I ever worked with. Shooting a saga like Ramayan came with unexpected problems, at times, but he was never stressed out. The people from Doordarshan would be worried as a missed telecast would lead to huge protests but he never took any tension. They would keep on asking for the tape. I have read so many stories where people have created commotion outside electricity board offices as they could not watch due to power cuts. You must consider that power cuts were rampant in India when the show was aired in the 1980s."

Well, now we know why Ramayan continues to so popular to this day. After all, good preparation and proper research is half the job done.

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