Ramanand Sagar

Card image cap

Ramanand Sagar

Name :Ramanand Sagar
Nickname :Ramanand Chopra, Ramanand Bedi, and Ramanand Kashmiri, Papaji
DOB :29 December 1917
(Age 88 Yr. )
Died :12 December 2005

Personal Life

Religion Hinduism
Nationality Indian
Profession Director, Producer, and Writer
Place Asal Guru Ke, Lahore in Punjab, British India,  India

Physical Appearance

Eye Color Dark Brown

Family

Parents

Father- Lala Dinanath Chopra

Marital Status Married
Spouse

Leelavati Sagar

Childern/Kids

Sons- Subhash Sagar, Moti Sagar
Moti Sagar, Prem Sagar, Anand Sagar

Daughter- Sarita Sagar

Siblings

Brother- Chittaranjan Chopra

Ramanand Sagar was an Indian director, producer, writer and an editor. He is best known for making the television show Ramayan (1987-1988).

Early life

Sagar was born at Asal Guru near Lahore. His great-grandfather, Lala Shankar Das Chopra, migrated from Lahore to Kashmir. Ramanand was adopted by his maternal grandmother, who had no sons, at which point his name was changed from 'Chandramouli Chopra' to 'Ramanand Sagar'. After Sagar's biological mother died, his father remarried and had further children with her, including Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who is thus Sagar's half-brother. Sagar worked as a peon, truck cleaner, soap vendor, goldsmith apprentice etc. during the day and studied for his degree at night.

He was a gold medalist in Sanskrit and Persian from the University of Punjab in 1942. He was also editor of newspaper Daily Milap. He wrote many short stories, novels, poems, plays, etc. under names like "Ramanand Chopra", "Ramanand Bedi" and "Ramanand Kashmiri". In 1942 when he caught tuberculosis he wrote a subjective column, "Diary of a T.B. patient", about his fight. The column was published in series in the magazine Adab-e-Mashriq in Lahore.

Career

In 1932, Sagar started his film career as a clapper boy in a silent film, Raiders of the Rail Road. He then shifted to Bombay in 1949 after India's partition.

In 1944, He acted in Punjabi film Koel, Directord by Roop K. Shorey,made in Lahore released on Friday,24 November by Film Company Shorey Pictures.

In the 1940s, Sagar started out as an assistant stage manager in Prithvi Theatres of Prithviraj Kapoor. He also directed a few plays under the fatherly guidance of Kapoor.

Along with other films that Sagar himself directed, he wrote the story and screenplay for Raj Kapoor's superhit Barsaat. He founded the film and television production company known as Sagar Films (Pvt. Ltd.) a.k.a. Sagar Arts in 1950. He produced and directed Bazooband and Mehmaan which were not successful.

He won the 1960 Filmfare Best Dialogue Award for Paigham which was directed by S. S. Vasan and starred Dilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala and Raaj Kumar.

His successful directorial ventures included Ghunghat and Arzoo, which became blockbusters in the years 1960 and 1965 respectively. In 1964 he directed the classic Zindagi starring Rajendra Kumar, Vyjanthimala, Prithviraj Kapoor and Raaj Kumar. In 1968 he won the Filmfare Best Director Award for Ankhen. Ankhen was a spy-thriller starring Dharmendra and Mala Sinha. It was amongst the top 10 Hindi films of 1968. His films in the early 1970s were not successful like Geet and Laalkar. In 1976, he directed Charas starring Dharmendra and Hema Malini which was among the top five grossers of that year. In 1979, his directorial venture Prem Bandhan starring Rajesh Khanna, Rekha and Moushmi Chatterjee was successful commercially, becoming the sixth highest-grossing film of that year. In 1982, he directed Bhagavat starring Dharmendra, Hema Malini and Reena Roy which turned out to be a huge hit.

In 1985 he directed 'Salma' which was unsuccessful at the box office and though the music of the film romance was popular, the film did not perform well at box office.

In 1985 Sagar turned towards television with Dada Dadi Ki Kahaniyaan which was directed by Moti Sagar and produced by Ramanand Sagar. Then his Sagar Arts began producing serials based on Indian history. His directorial venture Ramayan aired its first episode on 25 January 1987. His next tele-serials were Krishna and Luv Kush which were both produced and directed by him. He also later directed Sai Baba. Sagar also made fantasy serials like Vikram Aur Betaal and Alif Laila.

The Ramayan series was initially conceptualized to run for 52 episodes of 45 minutes each. Owing to popular demand it had to be extended thrice, eventually ending after 78 episodes.

Sagar made a Luv Kush episode after receiving a call from PMO.

Based on his experiences of the Indo-Pak partition, Sagar published the Hindi-Urdu book Aur Insaan Mar Gaya (transl. And The Human Died) in 1948.

The government of India honoured Sagar with the Padma Shri in 2000. Sagar died on 12 December 2005 aged 88 at his home in Mumbai after a series of health problems.

In December 2019, his son Prem Sagar launched a book on his life, An Epic Life: Ramanand Sagar, From Barsaat to Ramayan. This book is a biography of Ramanand Sagar depicting his life struggles and his journey from a clerk to one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Personal life

He was married to Leelavati, with whom he had five children, four sons (Anand Sagar, Prem Sagar, Moti Sagar and Subhash Sagar) and a daughter (Sarita Sagar).

Filmography

Films

YearTitleDirectorWriterProducer
1949BarsaatNoYesNo
1950Jan PahchanNoYesNo
1952SangdilNoYesNo
1953MehmaanYesNoNo
1954BazoobandYesYesNo
1956Mem SahibNoYesNo
1958Raj TilakNoYesNo
1959PaighamNoYesNo
1960GhunghatYesNoNo
1964RajkumarNoYesNo
ZindagiYesNoYes
1965ArzooYesYesYes
1968AankhenYesYesYes
1970GeetYesNoYes
1972LalkaarYesYesYes
1973Jalte BadanYesYesYes
1976CharasYesYesYes
1979Prem BandhanYesNoNo
Hum Tere Ashiq HainNoYesNo
1981ArmaanNoNoYes
1982BaagawatYesNoYes
1983RomanceYesNoYes
1985SalmaYesNoYes

Television

YearTitleDirectorWriterProducerEditor
1985-1986Vikram Aur BetaalYesNoYesNo
1986-1987Dada Dadi Ki KahaniyanYesYesYesNo
1987-1988RamayanYesYesYesNo
1988-1989Luv KushYesNoYesNo
1993-1997Alif LailaNoNoYesNo
Shri KrishnaYesNoYesNo
1997Yeh Hai Mere ApneYesYesYesYes
Jai Ganga MaiyaYesNoNoNo
1999AanganYesYesYesYes
2000AakashYesYesYesYes
Shree Brahma Vishnu MaheshYesYesYesYes
Jai MahalakshmiYesYesYesNo
2001ChingaariYesYesYesYes
SansaarYesNoYesYes
Jai Jai Jai TridevYesYesYesYes
2002SaanjhiYesYesYesYes
Bhagat SinghNoNoYesNo
2003Arzoo Hai TuYesNoNoNo
2005Sai BabaYesYesNoNo

Awards and honours

In 2000, he was honoured with Padma Shri by the Government of India.[12] In 2004, he received a special award for his contribution to Indian Television at the Indian Telly Awards.

Filmfare awards

YearCategoryWorkResultRef.
1960Best DialoguePaighamWon 
1966Best StoryArzooNominated 
Best DirectorNominated
1969AankhenWon 
Best StoryNominated
Readers : 513 Publish Date : 2023-06-26 03:16:11