Ramanand Sagar: Tulsidas of Small Screen & Doyen of Bollywood

Ramanand Sagar, the Doyen of Bollywood, who inked “Ramayana” on Small-screen, had a meteoric rise from a clapper boy in the movie "Raiders of the Rail Road" (1936), to be a successful film maker, writer, director & producer to be reckoned with. He was a born writer, who could express and write in Urdu, Sanskrit and Hindi with equal ease. As an ace producer-director, Ramanand Sagar churned out many silver jubilee hits like Zindagi, Aarzoo, Aankhen etc. But his TV serial ‘Ramayana’ attained the status of a block buster and became phenomenally popular all over the world. The unprecedented popularity of the serial Ramayana made Ramanand Sagar a cult figure and he has been hailed as a modern day Valmiki and Tulsidas.

Ramanand Sagar alias Chandramauli Chopra was born with a silver spoon in his mouth on 29 December, 1917 at Asal Guru Ke, Lahore. He belonged to one of the most aristocratic and wealthiest Chopra family. His great-grandfather Lala Shankar Das Chopra migrated from Peshawar to Kashmir and became the ‘Nagar Shet’ of Kashmiri Chopras. His grandfather Lala Ganga Ram established his own trade in 1867 in Srinagar. His father Lala Dinanath Chopra, used to enjoy writing poetry under the pseudonym ‘Taj Peshawari’. Although, Ramanand got birth in an affluent family, but lady-luck played a trick on him, the infant Chandramauli was adopted by his maternal grandmother, who had no son. The adoptive family changed his name to Ramanand Bedi but the fame and fortune were destined for the name ‘Ramanand Sagar’. His childhood was filled with agony and sufferings, which was probably the reason for all his future emotional creations. After Ramanand's biological mother died, his father remarried and Vidhu Vinod Chopra is Sagar's half-brother.

He did many odd jobs such as working as a peon, truck-cleaner, soap-vendor, goldsmith apprentice during the daytime and attending evening classes to pursue his graduation degree. Sagar showed striking literary precocity, the faculty inherited from his father, when he wrote a poem titled 'Pritam Pratiksha' for the house magazine of Shri Pratap College, Srinagar at an adolescent age of sixteen. He was a brilliant student, won the gold medal in Sanskrit and the title of Munshi Fazal in Persian from the Panjab University, Lahore.

Ramanand Sagar joined Daily Pratap and rose to become the news editor of Daily Milap, a leading newspaper of Punjab. While practicing journalism, he continued to write prose, poetry and stage-plays under the nom de plume Ramanand Chopra, Ramanand Bedi and Ramanand Kashmiri. The writer in him made him to pen 32 short stories, three long-short stories, one novel, two serialised stories and two stage plays. He was also hailed as a satirist in prose and poetry.

In 1941, R.L. Shorey of Indra Movietone, Lahore offered him the lead role in his Punjabi film ‘Koel. When the shooting of the film started, he fell ill and this golden opportunity slipped out of his hands and the role went to Satish Batra. He did the role of Abhimanyu in an unfinished film ‘Krishna’ produced by Shalimar Studio, Poona.

In 1942, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium in Tang-Marg, Kashmir. During his forced stay in cuckoo's nest, he wrote a subjective column “Diary of a T.B. Patient” for a highly rated magazine ‘Adab-e-Mashriq’, chronicling his fight against the deadly disease. It caught the fancy of the literary world and he garnered critical acclaim. The famous film director Mehboob Khan and well-known writers Krishen Chander and Monto invited him to come to Bombay.

He made a significant contribution to the literary world starting with ‘Jwaar Bhata’ in 1943. Next year, he came out with ‘Aainey’ followed by ‘Jab Pahle Roz Baraf Giri’. Then Mera Hamdam Mere Dost(1945) and Phool Aur Kaante(1949).  After reaching Mumbai, he got associated with Prithviraj Kapoor’s Prithvi theatres. He wrote three-act play “Goura” set in the backdrop of war and peace. The great thespian Prithviraj played its first two acts under the name “Kalakar”. Ramanand also worked as assistant manager in Prithvi Theatres and he directed a few plays for the theater company.

Ramanand migrated to India penniless during the holocaust of ‘Bleeding Partition’. His only possessions were five Annas and a trunk full of manuscripts that described the horrors and destruction, witnessed by him during those turbulent times. Based on these manuscripts, he wrote his life's masterpiece novel ‘Aur Insaan Mar Gaya’ in 1948. Acclaimed as an all-time classic in Urdu and Hindi literature, this novel has been translated into several Indian and foreign languages. The English version ‘And Humanity Died’ was published in 1987-88.

In 1949, Ramanand Sagar made his foray into the Hindi film industry by penning dialogues and writing screenplay for Raj Kapoor's hit film Barsaat. After the grand success of Barsaat, he got many offers to write stories of films like Jaan Pehchan, Poonam, Sangdil, Shin Shinaki Boobla Boo, Insaniyat, Raj Tilak, Paigham, Rajkumar etc. He also wrote screenplay and dialogues for the films like Barsaat, Jan Pahchan, Sangdil, Rajkumar and Hum Tere Ashiq Hain etc. His name appeared as dialogue writer for the films Mem Sahib, Raj Tilak and Paigham. The film Paigham(1959) fetched Ramanand the best dialogue writer Filmfare Award and thus began the golden period of his film career. S.S. Vasan of famous Gemini Films, Madras invited Ramanand to direct his two films Ghunghat and Zindagi.

After starting out as a story/dialogue writer & screen playwright in Bollywood, he went on to becoming a prolific film-maker. He founded his own production company 'Sagar Art Corporation' in 1950. Whether he made a costume drama, action thriller or period films, the portrayal of the sensitivity of a woman's love has remained his high point. This banner had produced twenty films which have remained evergreen hits in the annals of Indian cinema. His strong points as a producer and director were evergreen music, massive production, spectacular locations and biggest of star casts.

The first film produced under his banner was Mehmaan(1953). All the agony and sufferings of childhood were reflected in the story of this film, which was written and directed by Sagar himself. After Mehmaan he directed Bazooband, Zindagi and Prem Bandhan. His first film as producer and director was Arzoo(1965) which was a big block-buster. Encouraged by the success of Arzoo, he produced and directed Geet, Lalkar, Jalte Badan, Charas, Bhagawat, Romance and Salma. He was the Co-Producer for a Telugu film ‘Hema Hemeelu’.

But it was with Arzoo(1965), Aankhen(1968) and Geet(1970), Sagar established himself as a successful filmmaker. He repeated the same magic at the box office with his film Charas(1976). Ankhen(1968), a golden jubilee hit, was a spy-thriller starring Dharmendra and Mala Sinha. The film got two Filmfare Awards, one as the best director to Ramanand Sagar and the second for the best photography to G.Singh. Arzoo(1965), a passionate love story, was the winner of best story award at Tashkent Film Festival. Lalkar came to the screen straight from the pages of a stirring novel by Ramanand Sagar.

While shooting for 'Charas' in France in the 1970s, Ramanand Sagar visited a French home and joined the family in watching television together. This triggered a visionary thought that TV will ultimately surpass the big screen. In line with this belief, Ramanand Sagar entered into television production in 1985. Starting with the hit serials Vikram aur Betaal and Dada Dadi ki Kahaniyan, he ventured into making serials based on Hindu mythology like Ramayan, Shri Krishna, Luv Kush etc.

The first episode of ‘Ramayana’ was aired on January 25, 1987 and went on to become one of the most popular shows in Indian television history. Reportedly ‘Ramayna’ was watched weekly by an estimated 40 million people and it generated significant Nelson rating when telecast on “Eye on Asia” in New York. During the telecast of Ramayana on Sundays, the streets of India and Pakistan wore a deserted look as the viewers were glued to television watching the epic saga of Ramayan. Ramanand was heralded by many as a magician to breathe life into a mythological tale with his wand of art. ‘Ramayna’ was so popular even with non-Hindus that some Christian Churches rescheduled Sunday services so that parishioners wouldn’t miss it. The euphoria that ‘Ramayna’ created is itself a legend. It set the Saryu on fire. Why only the Saryu, the Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri, even the mythical Saraswati, appear to be affected. It was telecast in five continents of North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

The success of the “Ramayna’ prompted Sagar to set out to make another ambitious serial Krishna on a gigantic scale.  Other tele-series made by the Sagar House include: Jai Ganga Maiya, Dharamveer, Prithvi Raj Chauhan, Bach Ke Rehna, Aankhen, Mahima Shani Dev Ki, Jai Maa Durga, Sai Baba etc. Alibaba was well received serial both among children and adults. But his television series Ramayana, Shri Krishna and Alif Laila are trail blazers in Indian T.V. both in terms of the revenue grossed by them and their mass popularity. All the Sagar mythological and fantasy genre are being shot simultaneously at the Sagar Film City Baroda.

The Sagar Film And TV Academy, Baroda has been set up to cater to the needs of the budding actors and actresses. This acting institute is based on Stanislavsky’s Theory of method acting and Bharat Muni’s Natya Shastra, doing actual shooting with students as a part of the acting course.

He was married to Leela Kumari and had four sons Subhash, Moti, Prem and Anand. He was also blessed with one daughter Neelam. When he refused to bow to the prevalent dowry system, he was disowned and had to fend for himself. Reportedly, during the making of the film Lalkar, he got emotionally involved with the actress Kumkum.

He won two Filmfare awards, first in 1960 as the best dialogue writer for Paigham and second time in 1969 as the best director for the film Aankhen. In 1996, he was honoured with the Sahitya Vachaspati by the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayag and in 1997, Jammu University presented him a honoris causa doctorate (Doctor of Literature). The Government of India conferred on him the civilian honour of Padma Shree in 2000.

Ramanand Sagar passed away on 11 December 2005 in Mumbai at the age of 87 after a brief illness following his abdominal surgery. With that an era of meaningful films and purposeful television serials came to an end. The void created with the death of doyen of Indian Cinema, Ramanand Sagar, is difficult to be filled in for many years to come.