Arun Govil played the role of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar's ‘Ramayan’, which aired between 1987 and 1988 on DD National.
Actor Arun Govil became a household name after essaying the role of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar's ‘Ramayan’, the 1987 TV serial that also featured Dipika Chikhlia as Goddess Sita and Sunil Lahri as Laxman. The actors recently marked their presence at the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Lord Ram at the newly-constructed Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
Now amidst the social media photos and videos of them from the ceremony, an old video of Arun Govil has resurfaced on social media. In the now viral video shared by renowned paparazzo Viral Bhayani, an excited Muslim family can be seen clicking pictures with Arun Govil at the airport, and they all greeted 'Shri Ram' with much happiness.
The video was captioned as, “Divided by religion, united by Arun Govil ji.” Check out the video here:
Post the video surfaced online, several social media users could not help but comment on it. While one wrote, “Beautiful video- we need more of this UNITY,” another one commented, “How long I wanted to see this Bharat.” A third social media user commented, “This is an epic. This speaks volumes.” Another one wrote, “Respect for Arun ji , the smile on his face is so divine.”
Interestingly, do you know that the 66-year-old actor was not the first choice to play Lord Ram in the classic show? He recalled while speaking to news agency PTI, "I had told Ramanand Sagar ji in the beginning itself that I only wanted to play the character of Lord Ram... When I was rejected, the role was offered to somebody else. But, I was brought back for the role.”
While ‘Ramayan’ brought him all the love and adulation, other roles dried up for him as it was difficult for filmmakers and the audience to imagine him in any different avatar. The actor said, "There were many pluses and minuses of this ('Ramayan') in professional life. At that time, I was doing good work in films, but after this, I was not able to work in films. At that point of time, I felt that it had become a minus for me.”
‘Ramayan’ aired between 1987 and 1988 on DD National.