Page 38 - Seniorstoday January 2023 Issue

men, and astrological predictions that foresaw
The ‘maharishi’ Ramanand Sagar
Ramanand Sagar’s son Prem Sagar, who
wrote a bestselling biography of his father,
An Epic Life Ramanand Sagar from Barsaat
to Ramayan, says that he is the modern-day
Tulsidas - he was destined to make this serial
and take the story of the Indian epic across
the world. Prem says that there are several
versions of the Ramayan, the most well-
known being those written by Valmiki (in
verse) and Tulsidas (in colloquial language);
in every age, whenever it is needed, a new
version is created-- it fell on Ram devotee
Ramanand Sagar to take the message of
the epic to people in this era, when Sanatan
Dharma or righteousness is required.
The story of Sagar’s
life as encapsulated
in the book, could
not have been easily
imagined by a fiction
writer. It is full of
astonishing ups and
downs, tragedies
and triumphs—all of
which, writes Prem
Sagar, were part of a
divine plan to enable
A son’s tribute to his father his father to create
the television show. A series of coincidences--
like all the people close to him being named
after deities-- several encounters with holy
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that he was on a mission linked to a revival of
the religious epic for the electronic age.
Prem Sagar recalls that when they were in
Europe, shooting for their production, Charas
(1976), they stopped for refreshments at a tiny
pub, and the French owner wheeled out a
large box and turned it on to play a film. It was
the first time they had seen a colour TV. His
father looked at it thoughtfully, and remarked
that he would henceforth make TV serials.
It was at the peak of his movie career then,
as screenwriter, producer and director, but
he had anticipated the power of the nascent
medium. Everyone thought it was unwise to
give up making movies for television and the
initial days of dealing with state-controlled
Doordarshan were fraught with problems.
Born Chandramouli Chopra to a wealthy
Punjabi family in Lahore, and renamed
Ramanand, which was prophetic; the suffix
Sagar he picked himself when his future
would take him to Bombay and he would see
the ocean for the first time. Sagar was raised
by his maternal grandmother, who ill-treated
him. In spite of a tumultuous childhood
spent in Lahore and Kashmir, he excelled
at studies and showed a talent for writing.
When he was hospitalized for tuberculosis, at
the age of 24, he wrote a series of articles for
Adab-e-Mashriq, a local paper, titled Maut
Ke Bistar Se, which turned out to be very
popular. Unbeknownst to him, his writings
in newspapers and magazines had made him
quite a literary star.
In Lahore, he did odd jobs, and even worked
as a clapper boy on a film called Raiders
Of The Rail Road (1936), before his life was
upended again—the Partition took place, and
the family had to move to India. Sagar was
married by then, to Leelawati (their names
combined spell Ramleela, points out Prem),
and a father to three sons already (two sons