Epic Life

<p>On 25 January 1987 with the telecast of the very first episode of <i>Ramayan </i> Indian television changed for all time to come. In a matter of weeks the series became a national obsession. During the <i>Ramayan</i> slot roads emptied out. No marriages and political rallies were scheduled for that time. More than three decades later there has been nothing to match it. <p/>Ramanand Sagar the man behind the phenomenon and a successful filmmaker from Bombay was among the first to recognise the immense power of television. He first made his mark as a writer in Raj Kapoor's <i>Barsat</i> (1949). From 1961 to 1970 Sagar wrote produced and directed six consecutive silver jubilee hits-<i>Ghunghat Zindagi Arzoo Ankhen Geet</i> and <i>Lalkar.</i> <p/><i>An Epic Life: Ramanand Sagar </i> <i>From Barsaat</i> to <i>Ramayan </i> written by his son Prem Sagar an award-winning cinematographer is an intimate look at the life of a visionary. It traces Sagar's life from his birth in Kashmir in 1917 his dramatic escape in 1947 when Pakistani tribesmen attacked the state his arrival in Bombay and his subsequent glorious career-the crowning achievement of which was the smashing success of <i>Ramayan.</i></p>