After Ramayan, Ramanand Sagar’s Shri Krishna set to return to small screen
Ramanand Sagar’s Shri Krishna, starring Sarvadaman D Banerjee as the lead, is all set to return on television.
Ramanand Sagar’s Shri Krishna, the hit mythological show from the 90s, is set to return to the small screens for a rerun amid lockdown. Ramanand’s Ramayan and BR Chopra’s Mahabharat from the 80s are already on air on DD National.
According to a Mumbai Mirror report, Shri Krishna will go on air on DD National will take up the slot once Uttar Ramayan ends. The report also states how late politician Arun Jaitely had played a prominent role in the show getting a coveted 9 am slot on DD1 in 1996.
While Swapnil Joshi had played the role of a young Krishna, Sarvadaman D. Banerjee had stepped in to portray the character as an adult. The show had first aired on Doordarshan’s Metro Channel (DD 2) in 1993 and was re-telecaste on DD National in 1996. In 1999, it moved to Zee for the broadcasting of the remaining episodes.
The Broadcast Audience Research Council said on Thursday that the mythological shows such as Ramayan and Mahabharat has helped to bolster television audience and advertising revenues. Overall, the council reported a 40% growth in TV viewing over the pre-coronavirus period, with 1.24 trillion minutes of TV content being consumed for the April 11-17 period. Nearly half of India watches TV daily as compared to 32% before, they said.
TV viewership has been growing consistently ever since the country was put under a lockdown on March 25, as people consumed more of news and movies. “Mythological shows have become the main source of entertainment among the Hindi general entertainment channels (GEC),” the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) said, adding that such shows contribute a whopping 43% of the total Hindi GEC genre, which is the biggest category of TV channels.
The mythological shows - which sometimes run twice a day - garnered 109 billion viewing minutes during the week by 353 million viewers, the council’s weekly data release said.
Starting with three advertisers when the series got relaunched in end-March, Ramayan enjoys around 42 advertisers per day, while the same for Mahabharat is about 25 advertisers, the data said.
(With PTI inputs)
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