Lalit Modi Recalls How Disney Declined to Finance Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan

Lalit Modi Discusses Early Financing Challenges for Ramayan

Lalit Modi has recalled how the Walt Disney Company turned down an opportunity to finance Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan. According to Modi, company executives struggled to connect with the filmmaker during a meeting in India, and discussions did not progress as hoped.

Speaking on a podcast with The Bharat Inc, Modi discussed the challenges of financing television programming at the time. He revealed that both Ramanand Sagar and BR Chopra had approached him seeking financial support for Ramayan and Mahabharat, respectively.

Modi stated that he was ready to finance the projects and had a partnership with the Walt Disney Company for marketing, production, and worldwide syndication. However, Disney executives initially cited a conflict of interest regarding selling their own programming.

The Meeting Between Disney Executives and Ramanand Sagar

Modi continued trying to convince Disney’s senior executives to consider the project. He described a meeting where Disney arrived with a large entourage and private jets, while Ramanand Sagar walked in wearing shorts and faced language barriers. Modi noted that Sagar could not fully understand Disney's sophisticated presentation, and the Disney executives failed to grasp the potential of a mythology-based television production on that scale.

Although Disney did not back the project, Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan became one of Indian television’s most widely recognised mythological series, growing further in popularity during its 2020 rerun on Doordarshan during the COVID-19 lockdown.