“As a test, something like a roadshow we produced Vikram Aur Betal investing around Rs 25 lakks to see how we would fare. What we had to our advantage was in-house expertise. I am a cinematographer, my brother Anand is a director, Moti, the youngest of us five brothers, is a writer and Subhash, the elder and most experienced is very knowledgeable on the production side.

So we set up everything ourselves and we didn’t need external help to start with. Besides, we had the infrastructure of our film production company at our disposal.

Vikram Aur Betal got an evening slot and we accepted it. It became a success with children and adults and we got our grip over the medium,” Prem explains.

As the sons experimented with Vikram Aur Betal, Ramanand Sagar planned his magnum opus, Ramayan. He researched relentlessly to write the script of Doordarshan’s first spectacular success which began its run in 1987, opening the doors for the corporate sector to market brands, new and old, on the state-run medium which until then was regarded by high brow marketing professionals as a mere propaganda medium of the government.

Ramanand Sagar who had earlier sought funds for the producion from Indian and NRI businessmen and had returned empty-handed found himself playing a new role as the small screen moghul whose pioneering attempt to reach out to literate and illiterate television viewers in the country through the narration of a familiar and revered mythological saga had paved the way for the coming into existence of a parallel entertainment industry which almost threatened the raison d’etre of the massive Bollywood industry.

The Godrej sponsored serial ended in 1988 on DD1 giving DD 10 per cent of its weekly revenue. The sales of colour and black and white television sets increased phenomenally between 1987-88 because every home needed a TV set to watch Ramayan on Sunday morning. So universal was its appeal that some churches had to reschedule its services so that Ramayan wasn’t missed on Sunday mornings.

The Sagars are today running a regular production house for television software. Subhash Sagar, Anand Sagar and Moti Sagar are at the helm of production while Prem, the gold medallist cinematographer from the FTII handles marketing and gives advice on technical areas in the making of the soaps.

Subhash has shifted from the automobile industry to join hands with his brothers in the entertainment business of the family. His career in cinema began with the production of Sagar’s Gujarati film Veer Mangda Valo, a regional blockbuster. Anand Sagar, a science graduate from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, has directed five feature films and is now co-directing Shri Krishna and Jai Durga with his famous father. Earlier he co-directed Ramayan and went on to co-direct Alif Laila with Moti Sagar, the writer-turned-director. With his engineering background, Moti, the youngest, has become the all-rounder. He can fit into any slot in the family business be it writing, directing, editing and administration.

Among the five, the departments involved in the creative and technical functioning of Sagar Video International are divided and the brothers have ably set up departments to handle equipments, costumes and props and each division is headed by a long-time associate or employee of the Sagar group of companies. The key word in Sagar’s work philosophy is loyalty. They have employees who have worked for years in the company and are treated like members of the family.

The Sagars are themselves very loyal by nature and principle. They have consistently stuck to DD and have resisted the lure of the satellite networks, for instance.

“What makes our projects economical is the in-house grouping of talent. We don’t have to look outside our studios for anything,” says Prem Sagar, the spokesman of the group besides being the marketing head.

Shri Krishna is the family’s most prestigious production to date. Currently the top favourite on DD1 is estimated to be regaling 13 crores and 40 lakhs viewers across the country on Sunday mornings according to an ORG MARG research provided to Indian Readership Survey this year. Prem is proud of a Wall Street Journal assessment of Shri Krishna which quotes a viewership figure of 135 million and rates it as the number one myth-based soap. The publication also describes it as the biggest ad-revenue earner for DD.

Like Shri Krishna which is being telecast in Mauritius, Toronto, Nepal, South Africa, Indonesia, Jakarta, Italy and UK, Ramayan was viewed in New York, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, UK, Singapore, Thailand, Nepal, Mauritius, Trinidad, Guyana, Jakarta, Nairobi, South Africa, Surinam and Sri Lanka. Both epics have become a part of the lives of Indians living abroad.

Shri Krishna’s revenue for DD per episode is reported to be 7 million rupees in Hindi alone. The incremental revenue from the dubbed versions is estimated to be 1 million rupees per episode. From one territory in Europe alone Shri Krishna has fetched a revenue of a quarter million pounds sterling for one-time telecast. Close to half a million US Dollars came in from a market like Africa where South Asian viewers would not like to miss an Indian mythology for anything in the world.

While the Ramayan script has been translated and contained in a Japanese language book, there is a proposal for an English version of Shri Krishna for non Asian viewers. While the shooting of Shri Krishna is on in Vadodara, the permanent shooting venue of the Sagar group, Ramanand Sagar is busy with the making of Jai Durga his next for television. This mega budget production involving multiple special effects is yet another feather in the cap for Sagar and his talented sons.

Meanwhile Ramayan is being digitalised with surround sound for world release. And quietly the doyen, Ramanand Sagar, who is turning more and more spiritual, is loosening the reins to his sons and grandsons.

“My mission in taking these stories of Indian mythology to the masses is simple. I would like to elevate their thinking to a positive level and lead them to believe in positive values and the presence of goodness in every soul,” says Ramanand Sagar who at eighty plus is more agile and energetic than his sons.

There is no question of retirement for this scholarly legend who built his empire from humble beginnings to one recognised and admired internationally.

“I may take a back seat some day in the distant future but I’ll never say Good-bye,” he smiles.