New Delhi: Ramanand Sagar's popular TV serial 'Ramayan' which is re-airing on Doordarshan became the world's most-watched show on April 16 with 7.7 crore viewers, DD India posted on its official Twitter handle on late Thursday night.
'Ramayan' is being telecast again since March 28 on public demand. In fact, when it was telecast for the first time, the serial had broken all records of popularity, and the show has repeated its history again.
Ramanand Sagar had made a total of 78 episodes of this serial based on Valmiki's Ramayana and Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas.
For the first time in the country, the serial was originally broadcast from January 25, 1987, to July 31, 1988. Then, every Sunday, at 9.30 a.m. the show was aired on TV.
From 1987 to 1988, 'Ramayan' became the most-watched serial in the world. Till June 2003, it remained recorded in the Limca Book of Records as "the most-watched mythological serial in the world".
Interestingly, when the serial started airing in the country for the first time, people used to remain glued to the TV sets. Since there were less TVs at home then, most of the people used to gather at some neighbour's place to watch 'Ramayan'.
Meanwhile, after the completion of mythological serial "Ramayan", Doordarshan has now brought back "Uttar Ramayan."
Also originally aired in the late eighties, the serial was a follow-up to "Ramayan", featuring mostly the same cast.
This show focussed on Rama's coronation, and his children -- the twins Luv and Kush.
While Mayuresh Kshetramade played Luv, Swwapnil Joshi essayed the character of Kush in the show.
"This to me is the most profound character I played to date and it is my first character interestingly. I have very few memories as I was all of 9 then when I played that role but I am all set to remember those good old days of shooting," said Swwapnil.
"I remember I had a great time and everyone on the set, be it Arun (Govil) sir who played Shri Rama, Deepika Ji (Chikhalia) who played Sita Maiyaa and Sunil (Lahri) sir who played Lakshman Ji took care of me and we all had a great time. We worked as a family back then. Can't wait to relive and see that on the screen," he added.
(IANS)