Almost after a decade, mythology is making a comeback on national television. But will it appeal to the Indian sensibility this time around? “Out of our total viewers, there are four crore people above the age of 30 and three crore below the age of 20. These three crore haven’t seen the first Ramayana,” says producer-director Prem Sagar, who has brought back the epic on NDTV Imagine. In just four weeks, the serial has already made it to the sixth position on TRP ratings. “There was a risk involved but the chances of success were more,” says Shailaja Kejriwal, EVP content, NDTV Imagine who believes that this serial will do well because of its strong values.

Director Ravi Chopra always believed that mythology would make a comeback in a big way and that’s why he began working on Mahabharata. Soap queen Ekta Kapoor couldn’t resist the lure of making moolah here and grabbed the opportunity of recreating this magnum opus.

“It’s good as a differentiation factor, but not as a staple diet,” says Ashish Kaul, head of corporate brand development Zee Telefilms. “Mythological serials have to be a mix of spirituality and fiction.” Zee’s Aladdin and Ravan are typical examples where adventure is mixed with spirituality. “They are easily understandable. But for the younger generation they have to be out-of-the-box.” An entire serial dedicated to the biggest villain in Indian mythology, Ravan, explains his point.

“Moreover, have your target audience in mind. A show like Prithviraj Chauhan will appeal to the youth, but the target audience for Jai Santoshi Maa could be mainly the devotees,” says Prem Kamath, VP Marketing, Star India.