Ekta Kapoor is a big name in the entertainment industry. She has given some iconic shows which are still famous. On her birthday let’s retrospect on some of her bold decisions!
Happy Birthday Ekta Kapoor: Let’s see her ’10’ out of the box decisions. Ekta Kapoor was Born on June 7th, 1975 which makes today her 46th Birthday. Also known as the “Czarina of television” and also “The Queen of Indian Television” because of her multiple hit TV soap operas which started a new wave of shows on Indian Television. Up until her contributions, Indian family-oriented soap operas were pretty mellow and mostly based light-hearted in nature.
The Czarina completely changed the ballgame with her early 2000’s hit shows like ‘Hum Panch’, ‘KyunkiSaasBhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’, ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki’, ‘Kasauti Zindagi Ki’ and many more. Her success got her multiple no.1 T.R.P ratings during primetime television. In some ways, she has outshined her father and brothers acting careers from behind the scenes as one of the biggest TV show producers.
Happy Birthday Ekta Kapoor: Let’s see her ’10’ out of the box decisions. Born to the great Jitendra, she has always been close to the entertainment industry. At the tender age of 15, she started working as an intern in film making with Kailash Surendranath. From there, she never had to look back, on this monumental day, let’s have a look at some of the bold and unexpected decisions that she has taken in her 20+ year-long career.
Setting up her own Production house
How many people you know have set up their own production house at just the age of 17? Our Czarina was bold enough to do so. Without any prior knowledge of how a production house works, she set it up without a shred of doubt in her mind. She was hell-bent on becoming a TV show producer and knew exactly what she wanted to do and how to do it. In 1994 Balaji Telefilms limited and from there it has been an uphill battle to maintain her upward graph. A battle she would go on to win in great style!
Venturing into Bollywood
Bollywood has always stayed indifferent to all sorts of small-screen entertainment. So, for Ekta to venture into Bollywood just as her career as a TV show producer was paying off was quite the risk many would say. She forayed into Bollywood in 2001 with her ‘Kyo ki… Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta” which was a commercial success. She later went on to produce and work on multiple big-budget Bollywood movies. Some of her most notable works are ‘Krishna Cottage’, ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’, ‘Once upon a time in Mumbai’, ‘Shore in the city’ and recently ‘Pagglait’.
Believing in superstition
Ekta has been known to be highly superstitious. From the date and time of her releases to the name and title of her shows. A lot of her work ethics revolve around superstitions. It is rumoured that she is a big believer in Astrology and Numerology. Despite her fans and other naysayers trolling her for this predicament, she feels very proud of her spirituality.
Famously, multiple of her biggest projects start with the alphabet “K” which she seems to have an affinity for. ‘KasautiZindagi Ki’, ‘Kum Kum Bhagya’, ‘Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki’ and ‘KyunkiSaasBhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ are such examples. She also changed the title of her movie from ‘Once upon a time in MumbaaiAgin’ to ‘Once upon ay time in Mumbai Doobara’ for numerological reasons. She has also been seen wearing multiple rings and ornaments indicating superstitious values.
Taking a season break from Naagin
Happy Birthday Ekta Kapoor: The Czarina knows how to take a risk and make super unorthodox decisions. Her super hit show ‘Naagin’ was at an all-time peak when she suddenly decided to cancel its second season and go on a season-long break. And to top it off she returned with the sequel when viewers had lost hope of its return. Luckily, this gambit paid off. The BARC(Broadcast Audience Research Council) India ratings for 41 weeks the season 2 of the show emerged as the No.1 show in the Hindi GEC genre. Ekta famously said that “We’ve taken the biggest risk there is. No risk can be greater than this”.
Tweeting Against Pewdiepie
Felix Kjellberg or famously known as PewDiePiew is one of the biggest independent YouTubers in the world. At that point in time, he had almost 60 million subscribers who watched and supported him on a daily basis. He often reacts to funny or dramatic videos sent to him by fans and expresses his uncensored opinions about them. One such clip was a small segment of one of Ekta’s shows. Felix roasted the video very hard and made a lot of fun about Indian entertainment and how it is overly dramatic and obviously more funny than serious.
He also called out Ekta Kapoor for the ‘quality of this sort of content. Ekta fired back with raging tweets as she compared him to a ‘junior artist’ she hires on her shows. These back of forth banters led up the huge subscriber battle between T-series and PewDiePie. Later on, Felix went on to release a video where he apologized to Ekta, T-series and every person in India for making videos titled ‘You India, you lose’. It was a bold step from her to take this giant head-on and in a sense defeating him.
Replying To Hindustani Bhau
Happy Birthday Ekta Kapoor: Our Czarina never seems to stop down from a battle when she is called out to one. No matter how severe the consequences might be or how risky it might be for her career. She always addresses her naysayers with a punch of her own. There was a lot of controversy due to her OTT ‘XXX’ on Alt Balaji. It was because the show had some intense and adult-rated content in it. The media, audience and a lot of people tried to defame her for this show. Reportedly there was also an official FIR lodged against her in the subsequent police station.
At this point, she and her team removed any such content from the show and tried to stay on the safer side of the fence. However, she decided to fire a few shots back at Hindustani Bhau who is known to be a controversial king. He and his fans spread a lot of negativities towards Ekta even to the extent that she received death and rape threats and openly called him out for Cyber Bullying. She said that it was important for her to stand up for her and the vulgar and profane language used against her and her family. This caused her to gain a lot of respect for even those who don’t particularly enjoy her content.
Surrogacy instead of marriage or adoption.
Many times we have seen celebrities adopting children. As they cannot go afford to go through childbirth or they just want to help the world by adopting children in need. But our Czarina chose the best of both worlds. Even though she is not married, she decided to have a child through surrogacy. Another bold and unorthodox move on her part. Her son, Ravie Kapoor was born on January 27th, 2019.
Wearing an off-shoulder gown
Ekta might be known for a lot of controversial topics. From making dramatic soap operas that always have a mixed perception to being overly superstitious. But her sense of fashion never came up in this list. In a press conference for her then-upcoming series ‘Coldd Lassi Aur Chicken Masala’, she was seen wearing a very risky off-shoulder gown. The stars and celebrities of Bollywood always wear glamorous clothes and eye-catching outfits. But it was very uncharacteristic and unnatural for her to be wearing such a revealing dress which left the reporters and her colleagues in awe who were mostly wearing traditional outfits. The then 44-year-old Ekta rocked the gown anyway. You go, girl!
Speaking publicly about addictions and personal life
Ekta is very active on social media and often she is seen speaking about her addictions and personal life. She is not afraid to display them in public! She made a resolution for 2021 and on an Instagram story she stated, “Starting Jan.1ST I plan to quit smoking, drinking and having promiscuous sex. On Jan.2 I plan to start therapy for my compulsive lying”. It is a huge risk for her to be so open about her personal life but yet she chooses to be completely transparent with her followers and her audience.
Shifting to OTT platform Alt Balaji
While she has been undisputed to the queen of television, she also has been a visionary when it comes to knowing what’s going to be the next mode of entertainment. She set up Alt Balaji in 2017, seeing the rise of OTT platforms and the demand for a specific type of content. When asked about this endeavour of hers, she came with quite a comprehensive answer. She says that she saw a rise in trendy and popular shows that have a specific sort of content that was more based on individual preference rather than family-led consumption.
She realized that there was a whole group of audience who was willing to experiment with different genres such as thriller, action, horror and romance. Television was not yet ready to cater to all these genres. Hence, she forayed with ALT Balaji and decided to deliver better and fresh content to the masses across urban and non-urban cities. Once again, she has proved that shifting from her comfort zone and moving into something completely new can be a great risk with greater rewards. ALT Balaji has remained in the top five most paid apps in the country.
Happy Birthday Ekta Kapoor: Let’s see her ’10’ out of the box decisions. The Czarina has proved time and time again that there is always risk involved in every aspect of life. And her career and personal choices have always been more of a gambit than an informed decision or choice. But one thing she has always been sure of is that she knows her audience and their preferences. She has throughout been creating some of the most-watched shows in Indian Television history. Her personal life has also been a subject of interest to a lot of people. But she has never really read into it too much staying loyal and loving to her fans. And avoiding all the negativity and criticism that has followed her. We all hope she keeps making these high-risk high reward moves. That keep both the fans and the haters on their feet.
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