Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Ramayana’ is as popular among people even today as it was at the time of its release. Its episodes shown again during the lockdown made people its fans again. Every character of this show has its own separate fan following. The casting of small to big characters was done brilliantly, that is why from Ram to Sita and from Laxman to Sugriva, every character fit perfectly. The casting of these characters was also done with great care by Ramanand Sagar. Well, in this show there was a character of ‘Sushen Vaidya’, who saves Laxman’s life by giving Sanjeevani herb. The person playing this character was not an actor, but a paan seller.
Ramesh Chaurasia used to sell paan
In the ‘Ramayana’ TV show, a special person had done the work of grinding the Sanjeevani herb brought for Laxman when he became unconscious and turning it into a life-giving medicine. It was none other than the character of Sushen Vaidya, which was played by Ramesh Chaurasia. Ramesh Chaurashiya was resident of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. Basically he was not an actor but a common man. His profession was to sell paan, that is, he had a paan shop. You must be wondering how Ramesh, who has nothing to do with acting, got this role. Actually, there is an interesting story behind this also.
This is how Ramesh Chaurasia’s casting happened
Recently, Prem Sagar had told in one of his interviews that Ramesh Chaurasia was a simple paan seller. After working in ‘Ramayana’, his paan shop became quite famous and he became famous throughout the city. People used to come to him from far and wide to eat paan. Many people also thought that eating their paan would cure diseases. Many people actually considered him to be Sushen Vaidya. Now let us tell you how Ramesh Chaurasia was cast for this role. Ramesh Chaurasia told in an old interview that the role of Sushen Vaidya was given to him by Arvind Trivedi, who played the role of Ravana in ‘Ramayana’. Arvind and Ramesh were good friends. When Ramanand Sagar was looking for the right person for Sushen Vaidya, Arvind Trivedi had suggested Ramesh’s name.