Thanks to the idiot box, youngsters who were least interested in mythology earlier are suddenly hooked to the many mythological serials on air at the moment.
College student Navneet Sidana, who till some time back didn’t was not bothered about the mythological characters is now suggesting his friends to watch Devon Ke Dev Mahadev — a show that tracks the life of Lord Shiva. He recently posted on his Facebook wall, “If you are not watching Mahadev, you are really missing out on something.”
Interestingly, there are many youngsters who have been religiously following the show. The popularity of mythological shows is such that the TV fraternity is trying to experiment with the themes. The epic tale of love, betrayal and courage — The Ramayana — is being revisited for the TV audience, this time in a younger peppier version. Ram Leela on Life Ok is a musical presentation of the epic with a mix of dance, drama and modern technology.
Annirudh Pathak, creative director, Life Ok, says that just changing the presentation of the shows has pulled many young viewers.
Pathak, who has conceptualised Mahadev, says that the journey of Mahadev from a sanyasi to a family man is so intriguing that anyone would love to know that.
“Just that it wasn’t told interestingly enough earlier to grab the attention of the generation that loves to watch Lords of the Rings and Narnia. This time, we have simplified the narrative and have kept it crisp enough so that no one gets bored,” he says and adds that the improved special effects fulfil rest of the requirements.
Ramanand Sagar group that made the epic Ramayana popular among the masses in the 80s, is back with it once again on one of the leading general entertainment channels. Meenakshi Sagar, the granddaughter of Ramanand Sagar, who is associated with the production of the show, says that the epic is very important in today’s time and thus her team has worked hard to make the new version of the epic alluring for the younger generation.
“We have simplified the language. The use of difficult Sanskrit words have been avoided, rather we have tried to use simpler Hindi words. Even in terms of special effects, the show is much attractive,” she says and adds that they have tried to etch out the character sketches in a better way than before too.