Lalit Modi has shared a surprising story about one of India’s most loved television shows. He says Disney refused to finance Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Ramayan’, and one reason was that the veteran filmmaker came to the pitch meeting dressed in shorts.
Lalit Modi’s role in bringing Disney content to India
In the 1990s, Lalit Modi worked in marketing, distribution and production, partnering with Disney to bring international content to Indian television. At the time, he shared that Doordarshan did not finance programmes. Makers had to pay a fixed hourly cost to the broadcaster instead.Speaking on a podcast with The Bharat Inc, Lalit Modi said both Ramanand Sagar and BR Chopra came to him for funding for ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’, respectively. He said, “Ramanand Sagar and BR Chopra both came to me and wanted me to finance it, and I was ready to finance it. I had an integrated system of marketing, production, worldwide syndication through Disney. But I had a partner in the Walt Disney Company. I told them that we should get into the production business and make a co-production with Ramanand Sagar. They said we have to sell our programming. It will be a conflict of interest. I kept pushing, though.”
How the meeting with Disney went
Lalit Modi tried to convince the top executives of the production house to agree to Ramanand Sagar’s demand of Rs 1 crore, which would have given the studio rights to the show. After repeated requests, they agreed and flew to India for the meeting.He said, “Disney came with a big entourage and private jets, and Ramanand Sagar walked into that meeting in shorts. Everyone used to be suited at that time. Unki English bhi tuti futi thi (He had some issues with his English as well). He listened to what Disney had to say, but he couldn’t understand it fully and vice versa, so he couldn’t make an impression on the Disney guys. There used to be sophisticated pitches back then. They wanted to see a presentation. I could see that the president of Disney was ready to run out of the room.”Lalit Modi said the executives failed to see the show’s potential because mythology had never been shown on Indian television at such a scale. He added that he could do little about the rejection, as he had a partner involved.
About Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Ramayan’
‘Ramayan’ first aired on Doordarshan in 1987 and remains one of the most iconic shows in Indian television history. Based on the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana, it brought the story of Lord Ram into millions of homes. Ramanand Sagar created, wrote and directed the series.Arun Govil played Lord Ram, Deepika Chikhlia was Sita, Sunil Lahri played Lakshman and Arvind Trivedi essayed Ravan. Families gathered around their television sets every Sunday to watch it. Govil’s portrayal became so popular that many viewers began to associate him with the deity.Its 78 episodes, aired between January 1987 and July 1988, helped establish mythological storytelling as a major genre on Indian television.
