Prem Sagar says Dara Singh who played Hanuman in Ramayan had special stool for his tail, would not eat anything for nine hours due to makeup

Prem Sagar, who is the son of legendary filmmaker Ramanand Sagar, has opened up about the hard work and dedication everyone put in the making of 1980s show Ramayan. Prem recalled how Dara Singh, who played the role of Hanuman in the show, would not eat anything for nine hours straight due to heavy makeup. Prem also said that his father Ramanand would work like a ‘mad man’ and recalled how he used to shoot at 4 am.

In an interview with Lehren, Prem heaped praise on Dara Singh and said, “His make up would take almost three to four hours. There were no prosthetics that time and we had to match the look with Hanumanji. And then his tail. If he is wearing the tail, then where will he sit? There was a special stool for him, which had a cut, so that he could sit with his tail on. And once the mold was on his face, how would he eat his food? And the makeup would be done three hours prior to the shoot. So for almost eight to nine hours the man could not eat anything. That was dedication.”

 

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He continued, “Papaji (Ramanand Sagar) worked like a mad man. He would get a scene in his mind at night and change the dialogues. He would tell me to wake up everyone and we would turn on the cameras at four in the morning. It was a 24×7 process.”

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Talking about the hardships which they faced, Prem Sagar said, “The biggest problem was the monkey army. If you need 500 people for the vaanar sena, can you imagine how much time it would take for the makeup?” Prem revealed that they used dried coconuts to make the mouth pieces for the ‘vaanar sena’ actors.