There’s a huge angle of woman empowerment also in our story of Ram and Vaishnavi: Shiv Sagar

Shiv Sagar, grandson of turns screenplay writer for Jai Mata Vaishnovdevi Ki that is now being telecast on Doordarshan.He speaks about the show getting the original Sita Dipika Chikhalia and Puneet Issar’s son Siddhanth playing Ram in the show.
There have been shows on Maa Vaishnavdevi in the past…
They have made some series, but I don’t think they’ve done it at this scale and how we have treated it. It is a magnum opus. It was conceived during the lockdown and made over two years. When Ramayan was telecast on Doordarshan during the lockdown all the advertisements were full. That was the time when Akash Chaudhary called me and said why don’t we make something on Vaishno Devi. He said that his father JC Chaudhary is a devout bhakt of Mata. That’s how the genesis of the idea came about and we took it up and it was made over two years. It was shot all over the country – Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Was the show meant for OTT and has the divine love story of Shri Ram and Vaishnavi?
We conceived it for OTT in terms of the scale, graphics, scripting etc. I wrote the screenplay because we were not satisfied with the writers that came on board. Some shows have been made on the divine love story of Shri Ram and Mata Vaishno Devi but I don’t like the way they were made. There’s a huge angle of woman empowerment also in our story of Ram and Vaishnavi. Because when Vaishnavi was growing up in the kingdom, her father Ratnakar wanted a son like Ram. Vaishnavi grows up hearing this and disliking Ram. She meets Ram by chance when the kingdom is attacked. She saves the kingdom but her father gives credit to Ram for saving the kingdom. But Ram tells Ratnakar that it was Vaishnavi who saved the kingdom. Then she realizes that Ram is not bad and she starts falling in love with him. She tells her father that she wants to marry Ram so Ratnakar takes the proposal to Ayodhya but by that time he realizes that Sita Swayamvar has happened and Ram is married. So, Ratnakar comes back heartbroken and gives the news to Vaishnavi. So, when Ram goes to sanyas, Vaishnavi also wears sanyasi clothes. We have taken proper Pauranik references for the show.
About getting Sita aka Dipika Chikhalia
We thought of casting Dipika Chikhlia because she has done Ramayan and has been closely associated with the family. We have cast her as the mother of Vaishno Devi. She suited the role well.
Is it a finite series ….
This is an 11-episode finite series. We have shot it like a film. We storyboarded the whole thing. We have shot in Gujarat at a studio. We shot at the Bhor Ghat near Pune. The Shrine Board permitted us to shoot on the entire track. After watching this show, if you go for Darshan at Vaishno Devi, you will realize what happened at every stage. The shrine was discovered 700 years ago by Shridhar Pandit. But the shrine has been mentioned in Puranas. After watching this show, you’ll come to know why there are three pindis of Mata. It’s like a guided tour.
The trailer of the show does gives us a glimpse of the Kalki avatar
We had the original Kalki avatar in our show even before the Kalki movie came out. Ram Ji meets Vaishnavi in Tretayug and tells her that he can’t marry her because he’s committed to Sita. Ram Ji tells Vaishnavi to go to Trikut mountain and do penance because she had a lot of philanthropy to do. Ram Ji tells Hanuman Ji to protect her. That’s why you’ll see Hanuman Ji next to Vaishno Devi.
Then in the dwaparyug, when the Pandavas came to Vaishno Devi, they asked Hanuman Ji to go on Arjuna’s chariot. Vaishno Devi gives Hanuman Ji to Arjun’s chariot. Then in Kaliyug, she’s still waiting for Kalki's avatar. Basically, they’re going to get married and she’s going to be with the Kalki avatar. That is the belief.
The casting of Siddhant Issar as Ram
Siddhant has done negative roles mostly. His father Puneet Ji also played Duryodhan in Mahabharat. But when we met Siddhant, we saw that he has a versatile face. We got to know that he has done theatre. We liked his audition and found him to be a very unconventional Ram. He has done a fabulous job. After this show, he started playing Ram in his other shows and plays. I guess nobody imagined him with the positive side that we showed.
What next…
Now, Kakbushundi Ramayan will be aired on Doordarshan and we are also doing Gaumata Kamdhenu. It is a 52-episode series that will come on a private TV channel.