Senior actress Dipika Chikhlia is best known for her portrayal of Sita in Ramanand Sagar's cult show Ramayana, which aired on Doordarshan in the 90s. The show grabbed headlines again when it was broadcast during the lockdown in 2020. After Ramayana actress Sai Pallavi was trolled for wearing a swimsuit during a beach holiday, Dipika Chikhlia's old interview resurfaced, in which she spoke about her sartorial choices to maintain the image of her screen character.
What's Happening
Back in the day, Dipika Chikhlia spoke to ETimes TV about how she was particular about her sartorial choices.
"I would wear saris in my late teens and early 20s. It was not something actresses would do in those days, but I did it because I felt it would look far more respectable to carry on that image. There were restrictions in getting roles in the future, but we lived by them."
Speaking about fan reactions, she said, "All my fans' moments were like someone making a painting of me, touching my feet. I also had fans who brought their newborns and asked me to bless them. They would come to us. We never received any love letters or nasty comments. We have always been respected."
Why Sai Pallavi Was Trolled
Sai Pallavi, who is mostly seen in traditional clothes off-screen, was recently trolled for her swimsuit pictures. She went on a beach vacation with her sister Pooja Kannan, who shared the pictures on her Instagram feed.
While Sai Pallavi's fans defended her sartorial choices, a section of the internet questioned her as she is set to play Sita in Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana.
About Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana
Producer Namit Malhotra has revealed that the makers plan to "localise" the film in multiple languages to preserve the authenticity of the characters.
Speaking at the World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit, Namit said, "The way we want to go about it is to really make it feel local to people around the world. Again, with the use of some technology, we are trying to make sure that we will be able to localise the film in languages with performance, which means that it should play in English with lip sync without subtitles or dubbed versions, because it should be in English. It should be in Spanish; it should be in Japanese in Japan."
