14 October,2026 02:17 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Ramanand Sagar`s Ramayan. Pic via X
Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan is one of the most iconic mythological shows ever made in India. Lalit Modi has now revealed that Disney was approached to back the series; however, it was rejected, partly because Ramanand Sagar arrived for the meeting wearing shorts.
For the unversed, in the 1990s, Lalit Modi worked for marketing, distributing and producing content by collaborating with Disney while bringing international content to Indian television.
In a recent podcast with The Bharat Inc, Lalit Modi shared that Doordarshan had a policy back in the day of not financing programmes. This required the makers to pay a fixed hourly cost instead. He claims that both Ramanand Sagar and BR Chopra of Mahabharat approached him to finance their respective shows.
He shared, "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."
He allegedly tried to convince Disney's top executives to meet Ramanand Sagar's demand for Rs 1 crore, since it would allow Disney to secure the rights to the show. After much insistence, the executives agreed and travelled to India for a meeting.
"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," he recalls.
Lalit Modi further said Disney's executives were unable to understand the potential of the show since mythology had never been presented on Indian television on such a scale before. He further shared that he could not do much about the rejection since he had a partner involved in the project.
Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan continues to be one of the most iconic television shows in Indian history. It first aired on Doordarshan in 1987, bringing the story of Lord Ram, based on the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana, to millions of Indian homes.
It was created, written and directed by Ramanand Sagar, and featured Arun Govil as Lord Ram, Deepika Chikhlia as Sita and Sunil Lahri as Lakshman, with Arvind Trivedi playing Ravan.
