On April 16, according to a DD India tweet, Ramayan smashed world records with a single day viewership of 77 million. According to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), 42.6 million people were tuning in to every episode. In just two days, Ramayan had clocked a total viewership of 170 million. Shortly after he was publicly ridiculed, however, numbers came in which vindicated the minister. They called him “Mr Antoinette”, rubbishing his imploring caption: “I am watching ‘Ramayana’, are you?” When Javadekar deleted the tweet, his Ramayan dream, we felt, had been reduced to a puddle. It didn’t take long for the memes to crop up. When contrasted with their plight, Javadekar’s photo-which saw him smiling and wearing flip-flops-was considered thoughtless by many social media users. Hungry, thirsty and defeated, thousands of migrant labourers were stranded as they tried to find a way home. But when on March 28, he went on to tweet a picture of him enjoying the serial on TV, the backlash was both swift and deafening. The prospect of a long national lockdown with its de facto curfew had given the minister for information and broadcasting a perfect stage to recreate the past. In 1987-88, Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan would result in what many compared to a curfew. On March 27, Prakash Javadekar tweeted, “Happy to announce that on public demand, we are starting retelecast of ‘Ramayana’ from tomorrow.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |