Newsmaker | The return of ‘Ram’: No better time to be Arun Govil than now

“After I was rejected, Ramanand ji’s sons urged me to play Bharat or Lakshman and said that these were strong roles. But, my deep desire was to play the role of Lord Ram,” Govil told The Indian Express in 2019. He credits destiny for helping him and eventually played the “maryada purushottam” as a relatable young man with an affable smile.

On Sunday, the ruling BJP named Govil as its candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Meerut, the actor’s birthplace, in the electorally-crucial western Uttar Pradesh region, which accounts for about 19 seats out of the state’s 80. This will be his electoral debut.

The BJP gave ticket to Govil by dropping its sitting MP Rajendra Agrawal, who has won from the Meerut seat for consecutive three terms since 2009.

Actor Arun Govil in tv serial RAMAYAN. Express archive photo

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Agrawal beat the BSP’s Haji Yaqoob Qureshi with a narrow margin of 4,729 votes. His winning margin was, however, over 2.32 lakh votes in the 2014 polls when he defeated the BSP’s Mohammad Shahid Akhlak.

For the upcoming polls, the BJP has also tied up with the Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD, a key western UP player which left the Opposition INDIA bloc to cross over to the BJP-led NDA last month. The BJP has allotted two seats, Baghpat and Bijnor, to the RLD.

Despite being enshrined in the public imagination as Ram, the actor has played many other roles in theatre and Bollywood. He started his school theatre and was a part of the amateur dramatics circuit at the Government Inter College, Meerut. In Mumbai in the mid-1970s, he was noticed by Rajshri Productions that cast him as a supporting character in the film Paheli (1977).

A couple of years later, Rajshri released three films starring Govil in lead roles. He played a young village singer in love with Zarina Wahab’s character Chandramukhi in Sawan Ko Aane Do. In Saanch ko Aanch Nahin, Govil and Madhu Kapoor were young lovers faced with a conflict between their families. Both films were hits but the third one, Aur Seeta, in which Govil’s character is caught in a love triangle, did not do well.

Doors also opened for Govil in regional cinema. In 1985, he took over the small screen as King Vikram in a series produced by the Sagars, Vikram aur Betaal. The buzz about Ramanand Sagar making a TV series on the Ramayan for Doordarshan was doing the rounds – and Govil also auditioned to play its lead.

Actor Mulraj Rajda and Arun Govil in tv serial RAMAYAN. Express archive photo

“Everything that happens has a good and a bad side. On the one hand, I became known as the actor who played Lord Ram on TV. On the other hand, I started wondering, ‘Why am I known only for this role and not the others?’ I started getting the same type of roles. Then again, I stopped smoking because if people were coming and touching my feet, they wouldn’t want to see me with a cigarette. Faith and religion are very strong in our country and we have to respect that,” said Govil, who recently acted in films such as Article 370 (where he played the Prime Minster, clearly modelled after Narendra Modi), and OMG2.

Thirty years after the TV series, Govil returned to play Lord Ram on stage in Atul Satya Koushik’s Broadway-style production, The Legend of Ram: Ek Shabd, Ek Baan, Ek Naari. “He used to come to rehearsal 10 minutes early. At times, he would be waiting even before the studio doors opened. He came in with all his lines memorised. In fact, he had even his co-actors’ cues memorised,” said Koushik. The director said Govil effortlessly blended with the group, sharing meals and tips on acting and career growth. “He was very professional and responsible,” he added.

Towards the end of the play, Lord Ram says, “Praja ke hit ke aagey raja shunya ho jata hai. (A king has no personal agenda beyond whatever benefits his subjects).” Govil seemed to be deeply influenced by this speech. “This is a positive message to politicians. Don’t members of Parliament have any responsibility towards lakhs of voters who have elected them? Is it enough to just win an election? When one of Ram’s subjects raises a finger of suspicion at Sita, Ram’s duty is, first, as a king and he acts accordingly and exiles Sita,” he said during the run of the play in 2019.

Significantly, the BJP had also fielded Arvind Trivedi, who played the role of Ravana in Ramayan, and Dipika Chikhalia, who played Sita in the same serial, from Gujarat in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls during the peak of the agitation for the Ram Temple at Ayodhya in UP.

The Ram Temple was consecrated on January 22 this year by PM Modi, with the issue being used by the BJP as a key part of its plank in the Lok Sabha polls. It is in this context that Govil’s selection by the BJP among its UP candidates assumes significance.

In the coming week, Modi will be at Meerut in his first public rally in Uttar Pradesh after the announcement of the election schedule — the choice of the seat clearly not coincidental.

Gujarati film actor Arvind Trivedi, who went by the moniker “Lankesh”, won his debut election from the Sabarkantha constituency. In the 1996 polls, he lost the seat to Congress candidate Nisha Chaudhary, wife of ex-Gujarat chief minister Amarsinh Chaudhary.

Dipika Chikhalia, also a Gujarati actor, was elected on the BJP ticket from Vadodara in 1991.