Arun Govil played the role of Lord Rama in Ramayan.Actor Arun Govil almost attained cult status when he played the role of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s TV show Ramayan, 35 years ago. The actor continues to receive much love from fans for his portrayal. Recently, a video began doing the rounds where a tearful woman falls at his feet. He even tells her to get up repeatedly as she is seen folding her hands in front of him.
Talking to Hindustan Times, Arun Govil said that he believes that they are ‘not touching his feet, but are paying an ode to their belief and faith’. He said that he is just a symbol and that Lord Ram made him that. Speaking about the incident, he recalled, “This woman saw me at the airport and screamed ‘Ram!’ She then caught my leg and literally rubbed her forehead on my shoe! I didn’t know what to do at that point, I couldn’t even bend to pick her up. When she calmed down a little, I tried to make her stand. She told me her husband is in the ICU. She had got a yellow dupatta, which she wanted to wrap around me. I told her, ‘Take this dupatta and make your husband wear it.”
He said that he had faced such situations before, as people would touch his feet and he would have to stop them from doing so. Finally, he just accepted it. He said that people older than him would touch his feet, and when he tried to stop them, someone once asked if he had a problem. He tried explaining that his culture didn’t allow the elders to touch the feet of someone younger . However, they continued insisting, and he agreed.
In an earlier interview in 2020 to PTI, Arun Govil recalled how people continued to call him Lord Rama. He also mentioned that the image of him as Ram was so strong that his films could not work. “After Ramayan my film career was almost over. I was doing films before. But the image was so strong that the films didn’t happen. I tried working in serials and tried to come out of the image but it didn’t work… I realised later that maybe God wanted me to be Ram, how many have been given this rare chance? People don’t call me Arun Govil, they call me Ram and it is a big thing.”