More than The Ramayan and Mahabharat reruns, Patel is savouring the lockdown rerun of 1990s detective series, Byomkesh Bakshi. “Mood and memory are linked, so watching our favourite shows from when we were younger has the potential to elicit a positive emotional response, if we were feeling good at the time when we first watched the shows,” explains Dr Pointer. A simple yet effective way to do this is through enjoying and revisiting entertainment that we have enjoyed in the past, such as music, films, and books,” he continues.Ĭonsciously and subconsciously, it seems, entertainment that we know and love makes us feel good by tapping into a positive feedback loop, where the patterns and pathways in our brains are long-established and well grooved.
“When we are experiencing life as difficult, we can use nostalgic reminiscence to immerse ourselves into our emotional past this can generate a sense of certainty, safety, and comfort.
“And a colleague who watched Shaktimaan as a child is watching it in lockdown with her six-year-old daughter – she’s really enjoying it because it’s nostalgic and she’s connecting with her daughter over it – that wouldn’t have happened without the lockdown and DD bringing back old shows.” “I’m watching Mahabharat with my dad,” says Patel.
#OLD RAMAYAN TV#
Until the late 1980s there was one state TV channel in India, Doordarshan (DD), which meant many of its shows appealed across generations, from children to grandparents, making them popular during lockdown. Now it’s good time to pass because we’re stuck indoors and bored,” explains 38-year-old Sapna Patel from Delhi. “People are religiously watching The Ramayan, it’s on twice a day, in the morning and evening – as a 1980s kid, it’s really nostalgic it takes me back to when it was on Sunday morning and family and neighbours would gather round and the roads would be empty.
The magic of India’s most successful TV show in history, both in terms of audience and advertising revenue, has clearly endured. Popular episodes of Ramanand Sagar’s TV adaptation of the ancient Hindu epic, The Ramayana – the story of Diwali – were watched by 80 million to 100 million people and, famously, turned parts of the country into ghost towns during its transmission. The Ramayan’s popularity is not so surprising considering the show was a once-in-a-generation phenomenon and gripped the nation when its 78 episodes were first broadcast in 19. On 16 April, The Ramayan was viewed by 77 million people, apparently setting a world record for the most-watched TV show globally (in comparison, The Big Bang Theory’s finale drew 18 million viewers, while 19.3 million watched the last episode of Game of Thrones). The first four episodes of The Ramayan’s lockdown rerun were watched by a staggering 170 million viewers, with between 34 million and 51 million people tuning into each instalment, making its state-run broadcaster, Doordarshan National, the most-watched TV channel in the country, when it hadn’t been in the top 10 beforehand. During India’s lockdown, millions of people have been glued to TV from the 1980s and 90s, with marathon ‘serials’ The Ramayan and Mahabharat and cult kids’ superhero show Shaktimaan being lapped up by original viewers, as well as younger generations who weren’t born when they were first aired.
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