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Ektaa R Kapoor: If I can change a mindset that a father doesn’t shoot his daughter for her achievements, I'll be proud
Ektaa R Kapoor talks about bring Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi back, reinventing TV, not going the OTT way and the small screen being called regressive
The nostalgia of the early days of Indian cable television is coming back as producer Ektaa R Kapoor is rebooting Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (KSBKBT), with the same leads–actors Smriti Irani and Amar Upadhyay. For her, it was the right time to bring the show back as this year marks its 25th anniversary. “We wanted to do a short bout of episodes so that we can actually bring back the memories and most importantly to give back to the medium that gave us so much–television,” she says.
Smriti Irani’s Tulsi became one of the most iconic characters of Indian television, and Ektaa R Kapoor believes that with this new version of KSBKBT, Tulsi can shed light on the topics that need to be talked about today. “We wanted to use this powerful, force to reckon with character that penetrated through large parts of India and help India see her in an updated, newer version and talk about important issues. We are using storytelling to do what we want to do, that is create impact, awareness and change mindset,” she insists.
Giving an example of the same, the producer shares, “Recently, a young man was sitting across the table and he came to tell me, ‘My Father used to hate you’. When I asked him why, he said, ‘Aapki wajah se meri mummy ne pehli baar unko jawab diya, jo unhe lagta hai jawab diya par mujhe lagta hai she put her point of view across for the first time. She felt that if Tulsi can do it at her home, why can’t I?’”
While the show enjoyed a historic initial run, Ektaa realises the pressure that comes with it but is unperturbed. She says, “No one wants to ever come down from the nostalgia they created and again put themselves through a test. But Smriti and the channel were both like ‘let's create an impact property. Let's work towards making a story and let’s not just run after only rating. Let’s entertain but let's not be preachy.’ This power is what we are looking forward to exercising with this story. We are not in the game of competition, but the game of coexisting.”
In today’s time when a large part of television audience is moving towards OTT, Ektaa chose to come back on the small screen. Ask her why and she says, “Essentially, my first love would always be television. This is a medium that has far more penetration than even the internet. There is a lot more noise on the internet, but it is scattered. Television has the ability to reunite people, families, thought processes.”
KSBKBT changed the landscape of Indian television when it first aired. Is the reboot an attempt to reinvent the medium again? “For me reinventing television is secondary, creating lots of noise and high TRP is secondary. But making that medium relevant in a way that people discuss what happened in a show on a dining table, is primary. If I can do that with television, where I can have one mindset changed, where one father can be proud of her daughter’s achievement and doesn't shoot her in the head because of that, I would feel extremely proud,” she asserts.
However, many people see the content on Indian television as regressive, and daily soaps like KSBKBT are often brought in as an example of that. To those remarks, Ektaa responds, “You tell the woke world a woke story, it’s no big deal. The enlightened are getting enlightened. You need to reach the masses, be relatable, talk of their issues and then push the envelope. We have discussed issues like domestic violence, marital rape, euthanasia, age shaming and we had families discuss that. And we hope to do that again, reach the masses, entertain, get families together and tell something that makes them think.”
