Ekta Kapoor is celebrating 20 years of her popular TV show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. On Friday, she took to Instagram and penned a lengthy note, recalling working on the daily soap, which successfully ran for eight long years and gave us one of the most iconic television characters of Tulsi Virani played by Smriti Irani.
Ekta’s production house Balaji Telefilms shared some interesting trivia about the show. Apparently, Smriti’s character of Tulsi was adopted from Shri Harikishan Mehta’s book Jad Chetan. The show’s original name was Amma, it was later re-titled Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and ‘Kyunki’ was added later. Check out the trivia below:
Sharing three videos on Instagram, Ekta shared some more trivia about the show. She wrote"20 years today to 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi...!'I remember sitting nervously in front of Sameer sir and Tarun pitching ‘Kyunki...' to them. Telling them ‘saas-bahu' drama could work...and that we were willing to do it in 1lac. Then Tarun called my mum and said ‘I'm calling to negotiate'... my mum said ‘No no, we can't do it in under a lac...' and he responded saying, ‘Sameer Nair has said we will give you 1.40 lac for it...pls spend on this show! Never has it happened that a channel has negotiated and given more money because they wanted better quality. But that was the conviction and backing the channel gave us. For the first time a daily soap was on prime time and went onto make history, as we know it. Immense gratitude to Sameer sir, Tarun Katiyal, the entire cast & crew behind Kyunki, Monisha, and StarPlus!”
Ekta also shared a humbling experience about the serial. Calling the show India’s ‘soft ambassador’ owing to its popularity and reach across the globe she shared how people of Gujarat watched the show even when the state was torn apart by an earthquake. She wrote, “20 years to Kyunki... A show that changed my life. Back then it was touted as India’s ‘soft ambassador’, owing to its popularity and reach across the globe. Thank you to the network for giving us a chance at that time. I remember reading about how when the Gujarat earthquake happened, ppl put their TV sets out and watched Kyunki. There hasn’t been a more humbling moment for me. Thank you for all the love that was sent our way.”
In another clip, when the serial completed 1000 episodes, Ekta expressed her gratitude towards Smriti who was instrumental in making the show a big hit. She captioned the video, “his was when ‘Kyunki...’ completed 3 years, and hit a 1000 episodes. The show continued to grow and prosper as did our erratic eating hours & crazy schedules. We put in almost 18 hrs a day into it! A Big thank you to all the writers, the creatives and actors. And a special thank you to my favourite person who went onto become a Cabinet Minister and made us all proud. @smritiiraniofficial.”
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi revolved around an ideal daughter-in-law Tulsi Virani, the daughter of a pandit, married to the grandson of rich business tycoon Govardhan Virani. The serial was a huge hit with and brought a paradigm shift in the viewing habits of Indians.
(Source: Instagram)
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