Ramayan (2008 TV series)
| Ramayan | |
|---|---|
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| Created by | Sagar Arts |
| Directed by | Anand Sagar |
| Starring | See Below |
| Opening theme | Jai Shri Ram By Suresh Wadkar and Kavita Krishnamurthy |
| Composer(s) | Ravindra Jain |
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language(s) | Hindi |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 300 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Rakesh Jain |
| Producer(s) |
Subhash Sagar Prem Sagar Moti Sagar |
| Editor(s) | Pappu Trivedi |
| Running time | 20 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | NDTV Imagine |
| Original release | January 21, 2008 – June 26, 2009 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Ramayan is an Indian television series depicting the story of Rama and based on stories from classic Indian literature. The 2008 release is a remake of the 1987s series of the same name. The plot derives from Valmiki's Ramayan, Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas and Chakbasta's Urdu Ramayan with aspects of other works. The television series was produced by Sagar Arts and aired on NDTV Imagine.
Synopsis
Ramayan tells the story of Rama, the eldest son of Dasharatha, the King of Ayodhya. Rama is due to become king after his father’s retirement, but his stepmother, Kaikeyi wants her son Bharata to take the throne.
As King Dasharatha had earlier promised to fulfil any two wishes for her, Kaikeyi demands that Rama should be banished to the forest for fourteen years and that Bharat should be crowned as king. Dasharatha keeps his word and with a heavy heart asks Rama to leave for the forest. Rama accepts the exile and is accompanied by his wife Mata Sita and younger brother Lakshmana. When Bharat learns that his mother is responsible for Rama's exile he renounces her and beseeches Rama to return to Ayodhya. Rama declines, whereupon Bharat places Rama's paduka on the throne as a symbol that Rama is the true king.
Bharat served Ayodhya for the next fourteen years keeping charan paduka of Rama on the throne.Ravan, the evil King of Lanka, abducts Mata Sita, prompting Rama, Lakshmana, Hanuman and his army of apes, the Vanara Sena , to rescue her and Rama to slay Ravan.
Season 2 focuses on Ram-Sita's life after returning from exile, birth of Luv-Kush and their reunion with the royal family and final departure of Sita and Ram from the earth.
Cast
| Portrayed By | Character | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Gurmeet Choudhary | Rama | Eldest Son of Kaushalya and Dasharatha. King of Ayodhya and also an avatar of Vishnu. |
| Vishnu/Narayana | Rama is an avatar of Vishnu. | |
| Debina Bonnerjee | Sita/Vandevi (Season 2) | Wife of Rama and daughter of the earth goddess Bhūmi and the adopted daughter of King Janaka of Mithila. and Queen Sunaina |
| Mahalakshmi/Lakshmi | Wife of Narayana and Sita is her avatar. | |
| Rishabh Sharma | Kush | One of the twin sons of Rama and Sita.Twin brother of Luv. |
| Perin Monish Malde | Luv | One of the twin sons of Rama and Sita. Twin brother of Kush. |
| Ankit Arora | Lakshmana | Brother and close companion of Rama. He is the twin brother of Shatrughna, born to Sumitra, the third wife of Dasharatha, his father. Thus, Lakshmana is the third eldest son of Dashratha. |
| Meenakshi Arya | Urmila | real daughter of King Janaka of Mithila and Queen Sunaina, sister of Sita, wife of Laskshmana. |
| Vikram Sharma | Hanuman | Hanuman is an ardent devotee of Rama and a central character in the Indian epic Ramayana. A general among the vanaras, Hanuman is a disciple of Rama in the war against the demon king Ravan. |
| Akhilendra Mishra | Ravan | King of Lanka and brother of Surpanakha. |
| Jaya Ojha | Mandodari | Queen Consort of Ravana. |
| Ashok Banthia | Viswamitra | A sage who takes Rama and Lakshman to protect his rituals, in the course of time he took both of them to Janakpuri, to attend Sita swayamvar. |
| Punkaj Kalraa | Dasharatha | Father of Rama and his brothers. |
| Vije Bhatia | Bharat | Brother of Rama, and the son of Dasaratha and Kaikeyi. He is the second eldest son of Dasharatha. |
| Lalit Negi | Shatrughna | He is the twin brother of Lakshmana and son of Dasaratha and his third wife, Sumitra. He is the youngest son of Dasharatha. |
| Rajni Chandra | Kaushalya | The eldest of King Daśaratha's three wives, she was the daughter of the King of the Kosala Kingdom. She was the mother of Rama. A queen of Ayodhya. |
| Hemakshi Ujjain | Kaikeyi | One of the three wives of Dasharatha and mother of Bharata. A queen of Ayodhya. |
| Sangeeta Kapure | Sumitra | One of the three wives of Dasharatha and mother of twins, Shatrughna and Lakshmana. A queen of Ayodhya. |
| Vinod Kapoor | Vibhishan | He was the younger half brother of the Rakshasa (demon) king Ravana of Lanka. Though a Rakshasa himself, Vibhishana was of a noble character and advised Ravana, who kidnapped and abducted Sita, to return her to her husband Rama in an orderly fashion and promptly. When his brother did not listen to his advice, Vibhishana joined Rama's army. Later, when Rama defeated Ravana, Rama crowned Vibhishana as the king of Lanka. |
| Praphulla Pandey | Indrajit | A warrior mentioned in the Indian epic Ramayana, was the son of the Lankan king Ravana. |
| Rakesh Deewana | Kumbhakarna | He is a demon and brother of Ravana in the Indian Ramayana epic. Despite his monstrous size and great hunger, he was described to be of good character, though he killed and ate many Hindu monks just to show his power. |
| Paras Arora | Young Rama | Eldest son of Kaushalya and Dasharatha, King of Ayodhya. Also an avatar of Vishnu. |
| Debina Bonnerjee | Young Sita | Daughter of the earth goddess Bhūmi and adopted daughter of King Janaka of Mithila |
Additional Cast
Arun Mathur as Sumali
Brownie Parasher as Vashishtha
Raman Khatri as Kubera/Valmiki
Romanch Mehta as Narantaka/Lavanasura
Nitin Joshi as Atikaya
Amit Pachori as Lord Shiva
Radha Krishna Dutt as King Sagara
Falguni Rajani
Production
Omang Kumar designed the sets and Nisha Sagar designed the costumes. Anand Sagar, son of late Ramanand Sagar, directed the series having worked on the script for about six months with this team. The series was shot at "Sagar Film City" in Baroda.
Music
Ravindra Jain, who composed music for the 1980s series returned as composer. Playback singers included Kavita Subramaniam and Suresh Wadkar. An audio CD with 17 bhajans from the series was released in 2009 with lyrics/music by Jain and the voices of singers Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Subramaniam, Sadhana Sargam, Satish Dehra, Pamela Jain, Ravi Tripathi, Amaye Daate, Rekha Rao, Prem Prakash, Kuldeep, Subhash Srivastav, Sanket, and the composer himself.
Dubbed versions
The Malayalam version of Ramayan aired on Surya TV and featured songs sung by Unni Menon. Ramayan was dubbed into Tamil and aired on Sun TV from October 2009. The Telugu version aired on Gemini TV. The Gujarati version aired on ETV Gujarati.
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