Before making Ramayana, Ramanand Sagar read 14 versions of it, reveals son Prem Sagar

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Ramanand Sagar's epic mythological show Ramayan has been garnering love from all over the world during its re-telecast during the lockdown. The show became the world's most-watched TV show, defeating Game of Thrones and The Big Bang Theory when it reappeared on Doordarshan in April. Since then, the actors, as well as the makers, have been sharing interesting details about the show. Director Ramanand Sagar's son Prem Sagar revealed that his father read 14 versions of Ramayan before finalizing the one.

In his book, 'An Epic Life: Ramanand Sagar: From Barsaat to Ramayan', Prem Sagar revealed that his father had done extensive research before making Ramayan. He revealed that Ramanand Sagar decided to make Ramayan while shooting for one of his films in Switzerland. He was sitting in one cafe and discussing various aspects hen he decided to make the TV show. he said, "My life’s mission is to bring to mankind the virtuous story of Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram."

He also revealed in the book that Ramanand Sagar started reading extensively for the show and read 14 versions of Ramayan before he zeroed in on Valmiki's Ramcharitmanas as a reference for the show. He revealed that the director used to read for long hours at that time.

Earlier, Ramanand Sagar's son Prem Sagar revealed that singers Kavita Krishnamurthy and Suresh Wadkar took pay cuts to be a part of the iconic show. Ramayan's music has been much appreciated by the masses ever since the show aired on TV. Legendary music composer, lyricist and playback singer - Ravindra Jain was the one who devoted himself to create music for the mythological saga.

He told TOI, "Composing the music for Ramayan was the most challenging task while making the series. When Ravindra Jain landed in Mumbai, he first came to Sagar villa to meet my father and sang ‘Ghungroo ki tarah bajta raha mein’. Fondly known as Dadu, he was a true maestro. Often words would flow from his mouth while he hummed a tune. My father, Ramanand Sagar didn’t even think of anyone else other than Ravindra Jain when we began work on Ramayan. Both of them were like two bodies with one soul. There was extensive research done for making the music as per relevance. Notable singers like Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Krishnamurthy gracefully took a cut in their payments to be a part of Ramayan."

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