Veteran actor Arun Govil etched himself in public conscience as Lord Ram after playing the part in the acclaimed TV series Ramayan, which also ironically resulted him in getting fewer work opportunities post the show. Created, written, and directed by Ramanand Sagar, the series ran for a year and propelled Govil to stardom. While the actor earned tremendous respect and love for the part, mainstream work started to become difficult to get by. "The response of Ramayan led to both, good and bad things. I got a lot of respect and honour but I was completely distanced from commercial films. All the producers and directors would tell me that my image of Lord Ram had became so strong that they would wonder what role to cast me in for. 'People see only Lord Ram in you, they don't see any other character' is what they said," the actor said in an interview with Rajshri Unplugged. Arun Govil said such a scenario for any actor is not "good" as it means one is restricted. The actor recalled trying to break the image later with some "grey" parts but quickly realised he isn't cut out for it. "For an actor, this is not good. The negative effect of it stayed with me for many years. At that point, I would think, 'What do I do now?' I tried after that. Films were totally out of question for me but TV was growing. There I did some grey shades intentionally, but after watching myself play those, parts I realised that this is not made for me, sorry," he said. Post Ramayan, the actor featured in TV shows like Luv Kush, Vishwamitra, Phoolwanti among others. He was recently seen in OMG 2, which featured Akshay Kumar and Pankaj Tripathi.
