Dipika Chikhlia, the actor who played Sita in the popular epic television series Ramayana, shared an old and rare photo of her along with the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leader LK Advani. The photo since then has gone viral on the internet.
During the 21-day lockdown period that was enforced to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country forced the ministry of Information and broadcasting to order the rerun of the epic television shows- Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Blast from the Past
The actor has been on a spree of sharing old pictures from the golden era of television. Most of the pictures are from the shoot of the series with her co-stars and crew. After sharing a group picture with the cast and crew, Dipika Chikhlia shared a rare photo where she can be seen alongside Narendra Modi and Lal Krishna Advani. It was from the time when she first stood for elections from Vadodara. She took Twitter to post the picture.
On Tuesday, soon after the Prime Minister’s address, the actor shared a video of herself urging people to follow the guidelines of the Prime Minister regarding the lockdown. She called the COVID-19 crisis as an ‘Agni Pariksha’ and hope that India would cross the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ soon. She also urged people to stay indoors and look after their health in order to support the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Touted as the first popular mythological epic on Indian television, Ramayana was first aired in the year 1987. It is largely based on Valmiki’s Ramayana and Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas. It was first aired on Doordarshan, the only channel back then. In the 1990’s it was aired on Zee TV, in the early 2000s, Star Plus and Star Utsav aired it and as recent as 2008, NDTV aired it too.
When it came out first, it broke the Indian viewership record. Broadcasted in 55 countries and a total viewership of 650 million-plus, it is by far the most-watched Indian television series. It holds the Limca Book of World Record of being the most-watched religious show. The re-telecast of the show has garnered record viewership to the channel with over 156.8 crore impressions.
Source: IndiaTvNews
