'Ramayan' creates history as it garners the highest viewership ever on TV
A scene from the popular show 'Ramayana'
Television show Ramayan may be three decades old, but the series in its re-telecast witnessed record viewership. At present India is observing 21 days of lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak and the government decided to bring back hit show 'Ramayan' on the country national channel Doordarshan the last weekend.
According to a BARC report, the show garnered 170 million viewers in four shows over the last weekend. The show's massive viewership made it the highest watched serial ever in the Hindi general entertainment space, according to the Broadcast Audience Research Council report.
The show was launched last Saturday amid the lockdown. Various government machinery publicised the re telecast of the show in a big way- thereby catching the attention of many.
BARC's chief executive Sunil Lulla called Prasar Bharti's move as 'brilliant' and admitted the numbers garnered by the show was surprising.
Also see: Remembering 9 iconic Doordarshan shows as channel celebrates 60th anniversary
He hoped that the numbers would attract advertisers in a big way as well till the show runs on TV.
The inaugural show of the series on Saturday morning recorded 34 million viewership, while a telecast the same evening had 45 million viewers and a rating of 5.2 percent. On Sunday, the viewership increased to 40 million in the morning and a whopping 51 million in the evening telecast.
Prasar Bharti has not just re-telecast 'Ramayan', but is also showing 'Mahabharat', 'Byomkesh Bakshi' and 'Circus'.
'Ramayan' was produced by Ramanand Sagar and featured actor Arun Govil as Ram, Sunil Lehri as Lakshman and Deepika as Sita.
