Hema Malini to peform Ramayana dance in Ayodhya ahead of Ram Mandir inauguration

Hema Malini is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer. (Image credit: dreamgirlhemamalini/Instagram)

Actor and BJP MP Hema Malini will perform a Ramayana dance in Ayodhya on Wednesday, ahead of the Ram temple inauguration next week. She will take on the role of Sita. The 75-year-old, a trained Bharatnatyam dancer, will give her performance during her first visit to Ayodhya.

"This programme has been organised by Swami Rambhadracharya. He has organised a 10-day programme. I am fortunate to be here during this time,” she told news agency ANI.

“The whole of Bollywood is 'Ramamay'. The artists are singing Ram songs. I also sang a Ram Bhajan last year. Everybody is preparing everything on Ram.”

The run-up to the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony began on Tuesday with a series of rituals, led by a member of the temple trust and his wife.

These rituals will reach their finale with the consecration, or “pran pratishtha”, of the idol of Ram Lalla at the new temple in Ayodhya.

"The ‘anushthan’ has started and will continue till January 22, the day of the consecration ceremony. Eleven priests are performing the rituals invoking all goddesses and gods," Ram temple chief priest Satyendra Das said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be among those attending the ceremony.

PM Modi is scheduled to deliver a speech at the end of the consecration ceremony, expected to be attended by 8,000 guests.

The Ayodhya Ram Mandir "pran pratishtha" will begin at 12.20 pm on January 22 and is expected to end by 1 pm, temple trust general secretary Champat Rai told reporters on Monday.

Settling a fractious issue that goes back more than a century, the Supreme Court in 2019 backed the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town.

Prime Minister Modi performed the “bhoomi pujan” of the temple in August 2020, bringing to fruition the BJP's “mandir” movement that defined its politics for three decades and took it to the heights of power.