Arun Govil

Born/Date of Birth: 12 January 1958
Place of Birth: Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India
Occupation: Actor, producer, director
Education: Chaudhary Charan Singh University Meerut
Height: 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Spouse(s): Shrilekha Govil
Children: Amal Govil (son), Sonika Govil (daughter)
Relatives: Tabassum (sister-in-law)
Arun Govil (born 30 October 1958) is an Indian actor, producer and director. 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 in Prashanta 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's highly successful TV 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 celebrated 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 was panned for switching over to the role of Laxman in V. Madhusudhan Rao's Lav Kush (1997).

Early life
Arun Govil was born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. He got his formal education at Meerut University, G.F.College Shahjahanpur, 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.

Career
In 1975, at the young age of 17 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 upon 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 with Govil's performance in the film and he signed him a three-films-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) which was the 30th biggest hit of that year.

Ramanand Sagar cast Govil as Vikramaditya in his television series Vikram Aur Betaal and Rama in his highly successful television series Ramayan, for which he won the Uptron Award for "Best Actor in a Leading Role" in 1988.

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 Oriya movies like Bidhira 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 1992 mythological Indo-Japanese animation movie Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama as Lord Rama.

He later set up a production company with his Ramayan co-star Sunil Lahiri. He produced and acted in Mashaal, a TV series based on the Indian independence movement. His wife Shrileikha acted and co-produced the show as well. Recently he appeared on Season 2 of The Kapil Sharma Show along with ramayan co stars Dipika Chikalia and Sunil Lahri

Personal life
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 Doordarshan Phool 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.