As India entered the third day of the 21-day complete lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, the public seems to be already bored sitting idle at home. A few people who have gone nostalgic took to social media demanding re-telecast of the iconic serial 'Ramayan' that was first aired in 1987 on Doordarshan. Responding to people’s demand for the re-telecast, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Wednesday said the public service broadcaster was “working” with “rights holders” to air the mythological series on Doordarshan.

Thinking it would be a good way to keep people at home during the quarantine, On Friday Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted to say that Ramayan will now air on DD National twice a day starting Saturday (March 28). This time we will get to see it in the morning as well as evening (9-10 am and 9-10 pm). "Happy to announce that on public demand, we are starting re-telecast of Ramayan from tomorrow, Saturday March 28 on DD National. One episode in the morning 9 am to 10 am, another in the evening 9 pm to 10 pm," Mr Javadekar wrote in his tweet.

Directed by filmmaker Ramanand Sagar, Ramayana featured Arun Govil as Ram, Deepika Chikhalia as Sita and Sunil Lahri as Lakshman. The show which was originally telecast from 25 January 1987 to 31 July 1988, also featured Late Dara Singh as Hanuman and Arvind Trivedi as Ravana.

Happy to announce that on public demand, we are starting retelecast of 'Ramayana' from tomorrow, Saturday March 28 in DD National, One episode in morning 9 am to 10 am, another in the evening 9 pm to 10 pm.@narendramodi
@PIBIndia@DDNational

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) March 27, 2020