For nearly four decades, two faces have meant Ram and Sita to millions of Indian television viewers. Now, Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhlia are back on screen together, not as gods, but as an ordinary married couple fighting to save their family shop. Their new film, Notice, premiered on the WAVES OTT app on November 6, 2026, and the reunion has given fans of the 1987 Ramayan plenty to talk about.
The timing could hardly be better. Nitesh Tiwari’s big screen Ramayana Part 1, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi and Yash, arrived in theatres on November 5 and has already crossed Rs 200 crore at the domestic box office. Just as a new generation discovers the epic on the big screen, the actors who first brought it into Indian living rooms have returned in a completely different avatar.
A reunion 39 years in the making
Govil and Chikhlia became household names as Lord Ram and Goddess Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, which first aired in 1987. The show drew record audiences, emptied streets on Sunday mornings, and made the two actors inseparable from the characters in the public imagination. For years afterwards, both were typecast by the very roles that made them famous.
Notice deliberately plays against that image. There are no crowns, no bows, no divine auras here. Govil plays Narayana Gupta, an honest, self-respecting man whose life revolves around his family’s ancestral shop. Chikhlia plays his wife, who stands beside him as the family faces a threat to everything they have built over generations. It is a deliberately small, human story, and that is exactly what makes the casting so striking.
What is Notice about?
Directed by Pradeep Gupta and written and produced by Aditya Pratap Singh Raghuvanshi, Notice is a social drama. The story begins, as the title suggests, with an official notice that puts an ordinary family’s future at risk. Narayana Gupta finds himself fighting a corrupt administrative system to protect his family’s 150-year-old ancestral shop from being taken away.
The film follows the couple’s fight against the forces threatening their legacy, a system that values land and money over memory and dignity. The shop is not just a business in the story. It holds the family’s memories, its heritage and its pride, built up over a century and a half. Pankaj Jha, known for his work in the popular series Panchayat, plays a key role as the rigid face of the system the couple must stand up to.
Why this reunion matters
Reunions of iconic television pairs are rare, and this one carries a particular weight. Govil and Chikhlia have not shared the screen as a pair since their Ramayan days, and the contrast between then and now is the point. In 1987, they played characters larger than life. In 2026, they play people audiences might recognise from their own neighbourhoods.
The film has also arrived at a moment when the Ramayana is everywhere in popular culture again. The new theatrical epic is dominating the box office, and Diwali week brought a flood of OTT releases. Notice stands apart from the spectacle by choosing quiet realism over grandeur, and early reactions have praised the emotional core of the story and the chemistry between its two leads.
Where to watch Notice
Notice is available to stream now on WAVES OTT, where it premiered on November 6, 2026. The film went straight to streaming rather than taking a theatrical release, a digital-first choice that puts it within easy reach of the same audiences who grew up watching Govil and Chikhlia on Sunday morning television.
For viewers who remember 1987, the film offers something rare: a chance to see television’s most famous Ram and Sita grow old together on screen, not in a mythological epic, but in a story about an ordinary couple refusing to give up what is theirs.
FAQs
When did Notice release?
Notice premiered on the WAVES OTT app on November 6, 2026.
Who stars in Notice?
Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhlia play the lead couple, with Pankaj Jha in a key supporting role.
What is the story of Notice?
It is a social drama about Narayana Gupta, an ordinary man fighting a corrupt system to protect his family’s 150-year-old ancestral shop, with his wife standing beside him.
Who directed Notice?
The film is directed by Pradeep Gupta and written and produced by Aditya Pratap Singh Raghuvanshi.
Where can I watch Notice?
Notice is streaming on WAVES OTT.
Notice is streaming now on WAVES OTT.
