As the controversy over the Congress party’s decision to not attend the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir on January 22 is gaining strength with one side questioning the other’s Ram Bhakti, one cannot help but go back to the time when the Ram of silver screen joined Congress and Ravan chose BJP.
The popularity of the Ramayana in northern India not only stemmed from the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Ramanand Sagar’s TV serial Ramayana also played a huge role. From the very January morning of 1987 when the 78-episode show started its journey, it became a blockbuster. Media reports suggest that the Sunday mornings during this time used to be under ‘voluntary lockdown’.
With the popularity of the show grows the reverence for the actors. And when it comes to the representation of one of the most popular epics of the world, reverence becomes veneration.
The same happened to Arun Govil who played the role of Ram. His popularity reached such a peak that the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who earlier had let locks of Babri Masjid open, pandering to the Hindu sentiments, asked him to join Congress.
Govil was also found campaigning with Gandhi on several occasions. As per the reports of India Today, in 1988 Congress gave him party membership and even asked him to fight the election. However, he turned down the offer.
In 2021, just before the assembly elections of the five states, he, nonetheless, joined BJP. Recently his visit to Ayodhya ahead of the consecration ceremony added a different fervour to the celebrations, say those who shared the same flight with Govil during his journey.
While Govil, the Ram of Sagar’s Ramayana supported Congress in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, the Ravan of the show, Arvind Trivedi, preferred to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He even fought the Lok Sabha elections and became an MP from Sabarkatha constituency of Gujarat in 1991 on the party’s ticket. During the first NDA government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee, Trivedi also served as the chairperson of the Central Board For Film Certification (CBFC) during 2002-03.
In 2021, when the veteran actor died, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “We have lost Shri Arvind Trivedi, who was not only an exceptional actor but also was passionate about public service. For generations of Indians, he will be remembered for his work in the Ramayana TV serial. Condolences to the families and admirers of both actors. Om Shanti.”
Both the political careers of Govil and Trivedi though don’t have many remarkable stages to recall, their popularity as Ram and Ravan brought them into the centre-stage for some time when the country was changing its political course. Do they have political relevance anymore? Perhaps in reel life, not in the real.
