#AwardForRamayan started trending on social media soon after Arun Govil's tweet.
After Ramayan's onscreen Ram Arun Govil's poured his heart out on not being felicitated by any central or state government, fans of the show started trending #AwardForRamayan on Twitter. On Saturday in a Twitter conversation with Filmfare, Arun Govil wrote: "चाहे कोई राज्य सरकार हो या केंद्र सरकार, मुझे आज तक किसी सरकार ने कोई सम्मान नहीं दिया है. मैं उत्तर प्रदेश से हूँ, लेकिन उस सरकार ने भी मुझे आज तक कोई सम्मान नहीं दिया. और यहाँ तक कि मैं पचास साल से मुंबई में हूँ, लेकिन महाराष्ट्र की सरकार ने भी कोई सम्मान नहीं दिया". This roughly translates into, "Neither state government nor central government has felicitated me. I am from Uttar Pradesh but so far none of the government honoured me for my work. In fact, I have been living in Mumbai since last 50 years but even Maharashtra govt never thought of it."
This came at a time when the entire country is reliving golden days during the lockdown by watching Ramayan with the entire family. While everyone is hailing Ramayan, disappointment expressed by its lead actor has made netizens stand in support for them. With #AwardForRamayan trend on social media, fans asked the government to honour all the actors of Ramayan and even the show.
Later, Arun in another tweet clarified that his intention was not to get any award from the government, though it has its own value. The actor added that for him nothing is more valuable than audience's love. "मेरा मंतव्य, प्रश्न का उत्तर देना था।कोई अवार्ड पाने की आकांक्षा नहीं थी। हालाँकि राजकीय सम्मान का अपना अस्तित्व होता है पर दर्शकों के प्यार से बड़ा कोई अवार्ड नहीं होता जो मुझे भरपूर मिला है। आप सभी के असीम प्रेम के लिए सप्रेम धन्यवाद," he tweeted.
The popularity of Ramayan is such that within a week after it went on air, the show grabbed the top spot on the BARC TRP list as the highest-ever rating show for a Hindi General Entertainment Channel (GEC) program since 2015. Interestingly, even after the second week, the show yet again managed to gain the highest TRPs in both the GEC Urban and Rural segment.
In the latest trends released by Yahoo, search for Ramayan sprung up after it was re-telecast on Doordarshan during Lockdown. The Ramanand Sagar's show beat movies such as Contagion, Good Newwz, Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior and hit reality show Bigg Boss.
The mythological show originally aired in 1987. Ramayan featured Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhlia Topiwala who played Ram and Sita respectively besides Sunil Lahiri, Arvind Trivedi, Dara Singh and Lalita Pawar in important characters.
