Actor Gajendra Chauhan , who rose to fame playing Yudhishthir in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat series, has expressed his honest opinion about the much-awaited Ramayana film directed by Nitesh Tiwari. the actor admitted that the trailer did not do much to convince him entirely Although he found Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama impressive. He even pointed some aspects of the film, particularly that of Kaikeyi, which could have been different.
In an episode of Hindi Rush Podcast, Gajendra admitted that one of the issues was that of Lara Dutta’s representation of Kaikeyi especially her part in asking King Dashrath to banish Ram from his kingdom. He claimed that the styling and representation of this character were not in line with what is traditionally expected of it. “I saw the Ramayana trailer. Personally, I am telling you, I was not impressed. I was not impressed by Kaikeyi’s scene where she asks for Ram’s exile. Her dressing, for one, is very modern. Despite his concerns about the casting, Gajendra did not dismiss Ranbir Kapoor’s appearance as Lord Rama. In fact, he felt the actor looked convincing in the visual glimpses shown in the trailer. “Here, Ranbir Kapoor has his own image. He is a very big star. Now he is playing Ram. He is looking good, no doubt. He looks very good in the get-up,” he noted. Hence, it becomes extremely difficult for any other actor to fully meet the expectations of the audience. Even when people have these pre-established notions about this character, here refrained from criticising the casting of Ranbir Kapoor based on teaser clips alone. He believed that one could judge his performance only after watching the entire movie. Despite the fact that there were sections in the trailer where Gajendra wasn’t very sure of, one thing which Gajendra really appreciated was the casting of Arun Govil as King Dashrath. Arun Govil had the credit of playing Lord Ram in the TV series Ramayan, directed by Ramanand Sagar, during the late 1980s. “I think the best casting is Arun Govil as Dashrath. He has become a father. I think that is very good casting for Ramayana. He is looking good too,” he added. Using his own career to illustrate the point, he noted that his public identity as Yudhishthir was entirely born out of his work on Mahabharat . He explained that he didn’t join the cast as an established star, adding that the show gave him his very first distinct persona since he had no prior image in the industry.
He was Ram 40 years ago. After 40 years, he has grown into Dashrath. He mentioned the fact that there is an established mental image of Lord Rama that is deeply entrenched within the minds of people due to culture and previous screen versions of this character.
They have given her a modern saree,” Chauhan said. He said that people generally form an image of the god with very particular royal features like a prominent nose and a kingly aura.
