Amitabh roped in to narrate series on Ayodhya Temple, history of Ram Janmabhoomi

The Construction Committee’s chairperson, Nripendra Misra, told The Indian Express that the series has been conceptualised to be “a multi-part non-feature series”, comprising six to eight episodes, each 40 minutes long. The series will initially be released on Doordarshan and later, a call will be taken on releasing it on other platforms, he said.

The Ram Temple is likely to be thrown open to the public by December 2023, and the series is likely to release around the same time. The makers are pitching it as a modern equivalent of the Ramayan and the Mahabharat series that originally aired on Doordarshan in the late 1980s.

“It will document not only the temple construction, but all aspects leading up to November 2019 (when the final judgment in the Ayodhya dispute was delivered by the Supreme Court),” a source said. The series may also feature actors who play characters during Ramlila presentations across India and abroad, including in countries like Indonesia and Mauritius.

The series has tentatively been titled “Ram Arpan”, but the makers will zero in on a final title as the filming progresses. It is presently in the scripting stage, and cameras have been set up at the temple construction site to capture various stages of “the making of the Ram Temple”. It has also been learnt interviews with prominent personalities and members of the public are being recorded regarding their association with the Ram Temple movement and Ayodhya.

The construction work is progressing as per schedule, the Construction Committee said. The temple’s ground floor will be ready by December 2023 and devotees will be able to offer prayers by January 2024 after ‘pran pratishtha (installation of the deity)’, the committee announced  in September.

Mishra said the temple is being constructed in a manner that “on Ram Navami the sun’s rays will fall on the forehead of Lord Ram at 12 noon.” For this, a team comprising experts from CSIR-CBRI Roorkee, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, and IUCAA-Pune have been roped in. In the lower plinth of the temple, around 100 iconographic panels based on scenes from Valmiki Ramayana will be installed. Initially, pencil sketches will be made of the scenes, and then clay models will be prepared before the sculpturing process begins.

The Ram Temple complex is being developed with the goal of having zero discharge, the statement said.