By Shilpa Jamkhandikar
MUMBAI, India (Reuters) - Two of India's best loved epicsabout gods, demons and cataclysmic wars are making a comebackon Indian television, hoping to recreate with snazzy visualeffects the magic they wove on TV two decades ago.
The "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata", two of Hinduism's crucialtexts, are regarded as allegorical lessons in righteous livingintegral to much of Hindu-majority India's culturalconsciousness.
While "Ramayana" is the story of warrior-god Ram, whodefeats a demon-king to free his wife with the help of an armyof monkeys, "Mahabharata" deals with a dynastic struggle forpower that ends in victory for the righteous.
Such was the appeal of the epics that when they wereadapted for the small screen in the 1980s they managed to emptycity streets, forced changes in train timings and got theiractors elected as members of parliament. Some people evenprayed in front of their television screens while the showswere on.
Now, the makers of the new "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata"series say they could top the success of the cult series withhigh-tech techniques such as those used in "The Lord of theRings" films.
"The special effects, the costumes and the whole treatmentof the story is such that younger audiences will be attractedto the shows," Bobby Bedi, producer of one of the new versionsof "Mahabharata", told Reuters. "There is a huge market formythological serials in India."
BIG BUSINESS
While the two epics air on three channels, a fourth willscreen the mythological exploits of the Hindu god Krishna.
India has a surfeit of profitable religious channels --they could double their share of 15 percent of TV advertisingspending of $2.6 billion (1.31 billion pounds) -- as peopleturn to spirituality to deal with the stress of modern life.
The TV stations are hoping for a share in those profits.
One of the channels, NDTV Imagine, estimated around 85million people had watched its "Ramayana" since January.
"Shows like these have a dedicated audience, whichautomatically means better ad revenues," an official of thechannel said.
"Also, we have tie ups with vernacular language channels insouthern India to telecast translated versions of the show."
But television industry officials are warning against anoverkill of mythological fare.
"Around 10 years ago, daily soaps weren't the trend, theneveryone started doing it," said NDTV's Shailaja Kejriwal.
"The same was with music-based reality shows. If there isan overload, even this won't work."
(Writing by Krittivas Mukherjee)
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