Rohith Srinath (who played Rajam), Master Manjunath (Swami) and Raghuram Sitaram (Mani) visited Arasalu and Agumbe, where Shankar Nag’s iconic ‘Malgudi Days’ was shot
Mysuru: In the autumn of 1986, long before cable networks and streaming platforms began carving up our evenings, families used to gather around those bulky, cathode-ray tubes called black-and-white televisions at dinnertime on Wednesdays, soaking up the unhurried rhythms of a fictional South Indian town. Based on the timeless writings of Mysuru-based novelist RK Narayan and brought to life by actor-director Shankar Nag , Malgudi Days premiered on Sept 24, 1986, across Doordarshan’s National Network. Over the next 38 episodes, it went on to capture the imagination of a nascent television audience through its simplistic storytelling — anchored irrevocably by the classic opener, ‘A Hero’, and the misadventures of a boy named Swami. “Since the serial is completing 40 years this month, we thought this would be one special visit.
“For the last two years, I had been planning to revisit Agumbe with my co-actors,” Manjunath said. “The images of those shooting days came rushing back in our minds,” he said. The actors spent three days wandering through Agumbe and Arasalu, reliving their childhood selves. They returned to the rooms where they stayed during production and crossed paths with villagers who still remember when a modest television crew transformed their quiet neighborhoods into RK Narayan’s universe. They even visited the SVS School, whose infrastructure stood in for the iconic Albert Mission School in the series. The trio’s ‘pilgrimage’ culminated at the historic Arasalu railway station, where the Shivamogga Kannada Sangha felicitated the actors. For Rohith, standing amidst the old tracks brought a rush of emotion. Agumbe and Arasalu hark back to a simpler era when television allowed us to smile at everyday innocence — and fallibilities.
Four decades later, for Swami, Rajam, and Mani, it’s yesterday once more!