Why the serial on ravana was made

The truth behind Ravan's ten heads

I'm not a morning person, and leaving home at 7:30 am for an assignment is not my cup of tea. But it's not everyday that a serial is made on Ravan, the biggest villain of Hindu mythology, and I was immensely curious to know why it was being made.

The sets were located in the village of Umargaon, on the Maharashtra-Gujarat border, and it took us about five hours to reach the venue by road.

The unit members welcomed the media warmly with garlands and petals, even as firecrackers went off.

Ravan, which premieres on November 18, is essentially a guide to Ravan, the king of Lanka.

According to producer Gulshan Sachdeva, it was necessary to make a serial on Ravan because 'nobody knew anything about him and his family.'

But he clarified that the serial will not glorify Ravan. It will simply give Ravan's point of view -- why he abducted Rama's wife Sita -- without justifying what he did. The serial will show Ravan's transformation from mahamanav (a great human being) to a mahadanav (a great demon).

Ravan will be played by Narain Jha, who hails from Bihar. The actor has been seen earlier in television serials like Shanti and Kyun Ki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and films like Kachchi Sadak.

Jha will also be seen in forthcoming film Ek Dastak in the protagonist's role, opposite singer and actress Vasundhara Das.

He is also currently performing in an English play called Chanakya.

Chandan Mishra, who wrote Ravan, said the serial is based on facts. "After every episode, we will tell the audience the source of our story."

The serial is directed Ranjan Singh, who seemed to be a man of few words, like 'action' and 'cut.' Zee's marketing head Tarun Mehra said they they did some market research in Varanasi, Gujarat and other centres to determine if folks were interested in a serial on Ravana. The response was positive. However, the response at certain points at the press conference was not as positive. When Narain Jha suggested that Ravan was a self-made man, a journalist from north India did not take it lightly. "Ravan was a god-gifted man," he claimed, to which Jha replied, "Then who is god?"

This led to a heated argument about religion.

The serial will reveal little-known aspects about Ravan like the fact that he was the grandson of Brahma, that Hanuman was one of the ministers in his court who left after a misunderstanding, and that Ravana did not actually have ten heads; he actually wore a necklace of ten heads.

The beautiful costumes and sets have been designed by Vinu Shah and Santosh Prajapati respectively. The serial starts by explaining how Ravan was born.

In the first scene Ravan's mother Kekashi (Ravee Gupta) is shown trying to seduce Rishi Vishrava (R K Gupta), because she wants to have a child with him.