@ Mano,
Devdutt Patnaik may or may not be a writer, but he is part of the SKR team certainly. As an adviser, he is part of the CVs. Anyone who follows his writings can tell that he has issues with Ram's character. He even wrote an article about Ram being a misogynist.
As far as Ram being a secondary character, even if the comment was made by the official twitter handle of SKR, they represent SKR and thus, whatever they say will be taken as the word of CVs, and if it's wrong then CVs should speak out against it and state that Ram is just as equal to the story as Sita is.
But from the very beginning, CVs have been making statements that this show will be about Sita's journey and it will be Ramayan through Sita's eyes. CVs clearly stated that so many versions of Ramayana (including Valmiki) are written through Ram's POV in which Sita is secondary character, and theirs will be the opposite.
By stating that theirs will be the opposite, they are directly saying that this show is Sita's POV in which Ram is secondary character.
First of all, Ramayana by Valmiki is not from Ram's POV. It's not from anyone's POV and covers the stories of many characters. Also, Ramayana does not simply mean "Rama's journey". It also means "Sita's journey" because Ramaa is another name for Sita. Valmiki himself described the epic he wrote as being Sita's story just as much as Ram's by saying "Sitayah Charitam Mahaan".
Despite CVs' continuous statements that the character of Sita has been overlooked of late, Valmiki Ramayana does explain Sita's story just as much as Ram's post-haran. It describes in minute detail what happened to Sita after Ravan brought her to Lanka. There really is nothing open to interpretation, because it's already written so clearly.
So if Valmiki Ramayana, which is supposedly from Ram's POV, describes Sita's story in detail, why cannot SKR, which is supposedly from Sita's POV, describe Ram's story post-haran?
CVs' belief that Ram is a secondary character in their show is made very clear so far. There has not been a glimpse of Ram since Sita haran. Why? Is Ravan more important in Sita's life that they'd rather show the Lankans than show what happened to Ram and Lakshman upon them finding the ashram empty?
CVs have continuously claimed that this is Siya Ke Ram, and thus it is Sita's story. She is the main protagonist, and everyone else including Ram is a supporting character. The dialogues they give Sita (many of which are Ram's in the original epic), they way they have characterized her, often by pushing Ram to the sidelines, proves that to them, Ram is a secondary character.
Utkarsh Naithani himself in his tweets keeps saying this is Sita's story and they are focusing on Sita's pain. If Ram was an equally respected character, they'd be able to focus on both of them equally. They'd be able to show both their stories as parallels. It has been done before. It's not that difficult.
The fact that they are not doing that proves that in Sita's Ramayana, Ram is a supporting character.
Do not question us for making such comments. It is evidenced by the CVs themselves, not only through their interviews and tweets, but also in the storytelling of the show.
Edited by ..RamKiJanaki.. - 9 years ago