Ramayan, the over three-decade-old TV series based on Hindu mythology, garnered 170 million viewers in four shows over the last weekend in its new avatar, the BARC said on Thursday. The show was relaunched last Saturday amid the gloomy times of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lot of thrust laid by the government machinery to popularise the series.
BARC's chief executive Sunil Lulla said the numbers notched up by the series was a bit surprising and called the move as a 'brilliant' one by the Prasar Bharti.The inaugural show of the series on Saturday morning had 34 million viewers glued to their TV sets watching and enjoyed a rating of 3.4 per cent, while a telecast the same evening had 45 million viewers and a rating of 5.2 per cent. The show bettered its performance on Sunday, with 40 million and 51 million people watching it in the morning and evening telecasts, respectively.