Arun Govil, Ramayan’s Lord Rama, says government never recognised his contribution to industry

Arun Govil, who played Lord Rama in the popular television show Ramayan, said that he was never honoured by either the central government or any of the state governments.

Ramanand Sagar’s epic 1987 television series Ramayan was not only extremely popular when it first premiered on the small screen but also during its rerun amid the lockdown. However, Arun Govil, who played Lord Rama in the show, said that his contribution to the television in the industry was never acknowledged by the government.

Arun Govil is best remembered for playing Lord Rama in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan.

Arun wrote on Twitter that neither the central government nor any of the state governments ever felicitated him. He added that he was from Uttar Pradesh, but was never honoured by the government in the state. He was also never honoured by the Maharashtra government, despite living in Mumbai for the last five decades.

“Chahe koi rajya sarkar ho ya kendra sarkar, mujhe aaj tak kisi sarkar ne koi samman nahi diya hai. Main Uttar Pradesh se hoon lekin uss sarkar ne bhi aaj tak mujhe koi samman nahi diya. Aur yahaan tak ki main 50 saal se Mumbai mein hoon, lekin Maharashtra ki sarkar ne bhi koi samman nahi diya (Whether it is any of the state governments or the central government, no government has honoured me till date. I am from Uttar Pradesh but the state government never felicitated me. In fact, I have been living in Mumbai for 50 years, but even the Maharashtra government never felicitated me) #Ramayan,” he tweeted.

 

Ramayan, which is a retelling of the Hindu epic written by Rishi Valmiki, also starred Dipika Chikhlia as Sita, Sunil Lahri as Lakshman, Arvind Trivedi as Ravana and Dara Singh as Hanuman.

During its recent rerun on DD National, Ramayan became the most-watched Hindi show on a general entertainment channel. Earlier this month, the re-telecast of Ramayan came to an end and it was replaced by Uttar Ramayan, which was made by Ramanand Sagar as a follow-up to the show.

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