Ramanand Sagar’s version of the Ramayana is one of the most popular on-screen iterations of the epic. The actors are still fondly remembered by their fans, especially Dara Singh, who played the role of Hanuman. Recently, Ramanand’s son Prem Sagar opened up about how hard it was to get Dara Singh’s look right. He also mentioned how the actor couldn’t eat anything for hours after his makeup was done and how a special seat was designed for him to sit with his tail. Prem Sagar was all praises for Dara Singh.
Speaking to Lehren, Prem praised Dara Singh and said, “His make-up would take almost three to four hours. There were no prosthetics at 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.”
“Once the mould was on his face, how would he eat his food? And the makeup would be done three hours before the shoot. So for almost eight to nine hours, the man could not eat anything. That was dedication,” he added.
He continued, “Papaji (Ramanand Sagar) worked like a madman. 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 4 in the morning. It was a 24×7 process.” Talking about the challenges 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 mouthpieces for the ‘vaanar sena’ actors.
Now, with the advancement of technology, many modern iterations of the Hindu epic have been released using CGI and VFX techniques. However, the charm of Ramanand Sagar’s version remains unmatched.
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