Arun Govil played the role of Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s television adaptation of the Ramayana. (Photo: Instagram)
Although Arun Govil gained immense respect and love for his role, getting mainstream work became challenging thereafter.
Arun Govil became widely recognised as Lord Ram following his portrayal in the famous TV series Ramayan. Ironically, despite the show’s success, it led to a dip in work opportunities for him. The series, created, written, and directed by Ramanand Sagar, ran for a year, propelling Govil to stardom. Although he gained immense respect and love for his role, getting mainstream work became challenging thereafter.
“The response of Ramayan led to both, good and bad things. I got a lot of respect and honour but I was completely distanced from commercial films. All the producers and directors would tell me that my image of Lord Ram had became so strong that they would wonder what role to cast me in for. ‘People see only Lord Ram in you, they don’t see any other character’ is what they said,” the actor said during an interview with Rajshri Unplugged.
Arun Govil said that such a situation is not favourable for any actor as it implies limitations. The actor recalled attempting to break away from the image later by taking on some “grey” roles but soon realised that it wasn’t a good fit for him.
“For an actor, this is not good. The negative effect of it stayed with me for many years. At that point, I would think, ‘What do I do now?’ I tried after that. Films were totally out of question for me but TV was growing. There I did some grey shades intentionally, but after watching myself play those, parts I realised that this is not made for me, sorry,” he added.
After Ramayan, the actor starred in television series such as Luv Kush, Vishwamitra, Phoolwanti, and more. His recent role was in OMG 2, alongside Akshay Kumar and Pankaj Tripathi. The film opened to good reviews.
