Ramanand Sagar may be most immediately remembered for his long-running television epic Ramayana that had audiences glued to the small screen through the late 1980s, but he started his career as a writer and made his mark in the film industry as he had penned Raj Kapoor’s landmark film Barsaat (1949).

Born as Chandramauli Chopra in Asal Guru Ke near Lahore (now in Pakistan), his father migrated to Kashmir and he was adopted by his maternal grandmother who gave him the name Ramanand. He worked on all kinds of odd jobs while getting himself an education and graduated in Sanskrit and Persian from the University of Punjab. Sagar edited the newspaper Daily Milap and wrote several short stories, novels and poems under different names.

He started his film career as a clapper boy and later came to Bombay to work as an assistant stage manager at Prithviraj Kapoor’s Prithvi Theatres. After launching Sagar Arts in the early ‘50s he produced several successful films such as Ghunghat (1960), Arzoo (1965), Aankhen (1968), Geet (1970) and Charas (1976). He also served as dialogue writer for Paigham (1959) which won him the Filmfare Award for the Best Dialogue. Aankhen (1968) got him the Filmfare Award for the Best Director.

Sagar continued making films through the ‘70s with major stars like Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra but his most successful association was Dharmendra. His last directorial film venture was Salma (1985) after which he switched to the small screen making mythological epics and fantasies. He died in Mumbai on 12th December, 2005. His sons are following in their father’s footsteps as major television producers.