Arun Govil

Arun Govil is an Indian actor and producer. He has acted in Hindi, Bhojpuri, Braj Bhasha, Odia and Telugu films. He is best known for playing Lord Rama in Ramanand Sagar's hit television series Ramayan (1987). He made his Bollywood debut inPrashanta Nanda's Paheli (1977). He shot to stardom after he was cast in Kanak Mishra's Sawan Ko Aane Do (1979) and Satyen Bose's Saanch Ko Aanch Nahin (1979). He made his small screen debut in Ramanand Sagar's Vikram Aur Betaal (1985). He was then cast as Lord Rama in Sagar'sTV series Ramayan (1986), for which he won the Uptron Award in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category in 1988. He reprised his role as Rama in Sagar's Luv Kush.

His role as Rama provided him great exposure and led him to be cast in other roles such as Harishchandra in the TV series Vishwamitra or Buddha in the TV series Buddha. He lent his voice as Rama in Yugo Sako's Indo-Japanese animation film Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (1992). He also played the role of Laxman in V. Madhusudhan Rao's Lav Kush (1997).

Arun Govil was born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. He got his formal education at Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where he studied engineering science and acted in some plays. He spent his teenage life in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His father wanted him to become a government servant while Arun wanted to do something for which he would be remembered.

In 1975, He moved to Mumbai to join his brother's business there. After a short while, he found that he no longer enjoyed the work and decided to find something more enjoyable. After doing dramas in college he decided to start acting. Govil got his first break in Indian cinema in the 1977 film Paheli, when he was introduced to Tarachand Barjatya by his sister-in-law Tabassum. Barjatya was really impressed by Govil's performance in the film and he signed him a three-film-deal — Kanak Mishra's Sawan Ko Aane Do (1979), Vijay Kapoor's Raadha Aur Seeta (1979) and Satyen Bose's Saanch Ko Aanch Nahin (1979). Sawan Ko Aane Do became a major success at box office catapulting Govil to stardom. Raadha Aur Seeta was a box office failure while Saanch Ko Aanch Nahin was another success at box office. He featured in Kanak Mishra's Jiyo To Aise Jiyo (1981).

Ramanand Sagar cast Govil as Vikramaditya in his television series Vikram Aur Betaal and Rama in Ramayan.

His role as Rama provided great exposure to him and led to him being cast in other religious-based roles, including Harishchandra in Vishwamitra (TV series) and Buddha in TV series Buddha. Arun Govil has worked in movies of several languages. He has worked in Bengali movies like Bidhir Bidhan (1989) and many Telugu movies like Edu Kondalaswamy (1991), Govindha Govindha (1993), The Great Robbery (1996) and Aa re Kaaliya. He has also got an opportunity to anchor a show on lord Ram, Jahan Jahan Ram Charan Chali Jaahi. He also lent his voice in Hindi version 1992 mythological Indo-Japanese animation movie Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama as Rama.

Arun's father, Shri Chandra Prakash Govil, was a government officer. Arun is the fourth of six brothers and two sisters. His elder brother Vijay Govil is married to Tabassum, a former child actress and the host of the first Bollywood Celebrity talk show on DoordarshanPhool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan, which continued for 21 years. His nephew is Film and TV actor Hoshang Govil (Son of Vijay and Tabassum Govil). Govil is married to actress Shrilekha, with whom he has a son and a daughter.