How Ekta Kapoor upended the entertainment industry built on her beliefs

Survival is success

Kapoor, who completes 30 years in the entertainment industry this year, looks back at the past three decades as lessons at different stages of her career. “It’s been a journey with some tumultuous, some groundbreaking and some spectacular times. We realised that what we thought was success kept changing. And, I think, for me, I would like to say that survival is success,” she tells Forbes India.

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The daughter of yesteryear actor Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor has not only survived but also left a distinct mark as producer-entrepreneur. After the success of Hum Paanch (1995 to 1999, and a second season from 2005 to 2006), she revolutionised the television industry with shows such as Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (2000 to 2008), which topped the popularity charts with soaring TRPs (target rating points for television). Such has been the craze for the serial that it returns with season two in 2025.

Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (2000 to 2008)
Though she has done extensive work in television and films, Kapoor, 50, concedes that nothing comes close to the impact Kyunki... had, even today, 25 years after it first aired on television. “I would reluctantly like to admit to it [being the most successful television show from Balaji Telefilms] because I would have wished to have broken that. But it was so big a mountain to climb that I think it’s going to take me some more years, or maybe never,” she says.

It would be unfair to associate Kapoor only with Kyunki... though. Her repertoire of work includes talked-about serials such as Pavitra Rishta and Kasautii Zindagi Kay, and films like Love, Sex Aur Dhokha; Udta Punjab, Lootera, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, Laila Majnu and Crew.

Not by accident

Actor and former Union minister Smriti Irani first met Kapoor at the Balaji office in Mumbai when she was about to sign her contract as a guest artiste on a show. Their equation has since turned into a friendship and professional bond spanning decades.

“As a professional, Ekta is fiercely driven, uncompromising in her creative vision and deeply hands-on,” Irani tells Forbes India. “She’s not just a producer—she is a force who redefined Indian television with an instinct for storytelling that speaks to millions. She is exacting yet inspiring, setting a pace that few can match, always thinking several steps ahead,” adds the actor, who played Tulsi Virani in Kyunki…, and returns for the show’s new season this year.

A filmmaker had once scoffed at Kapoor, saying, “Women can’t do comedy.” Instead of feeling angry, Kapoor went on to make Crew, a story about three female airline staffers—Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tabu and Kriti Sanon—involved in a gold heist that made the audiences laugh and earned more than Rs100 crore at the box office. The director of the 2024 film, Rajesh Krishnan, says: “Ekta has always proven her mettle. She has gone and done what she believes in. I see her as somebody who has been one step ahead of the curve. You cannot look at Ekta and the empire that she has built as an accident. I am sure there was a plan.”

Krishnan adds that though they had several conversations about the film, including agreements and disagreements, Kapoor visited the sets only once—for someone’s birthday—giving him complete freedom in his storytelling and direction. Another filmmaker who benefited from her relentless support was Milan Luthria, director of The Dirty Picture, a film based on the life of Silk Smitha, an actor from the South who was known for her bold roles.

After shooting for six days, recalls Balan—who played the title role—the director was not happy with what he had shot. He told Kapoor that he needed to revisit what he had done and go back to the writing board. “Ekta told him, ‘Do it, do whatever it takes… you have to make the film you most believe in.’ That was the faith she had in Milan,” Balan says, adding that Kapoor did not meet her during the shoot either, but the producer’s alternative take on Draupadi about looking at a woman’s choices had stayed with her.

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“When you analyse things in retrospect, you think you needed an Ekta Kapoor to tell that story,” continues Balan. “She didn’t look at the film as a woman making a film about a woman. For her, Silk was a hero… it was a human story that she was telling.”

New stream

In 2017, a year after Netflix launched in India, Kapoor started video-on-demand platform ALTBalaji targeting audiences in smaller cities and towns. Streaming platforms have given subscribers access to content from across the world and the option of watching it anytime on the device of their choice. And though the theatrical business has been struggling since Covid, Kapoor does not attribute that to the emergence of digital players. “Streaming has democratised content and liberated makers. But, for a film, it has never limited it. In fact, it has created one more avenue of exploitation,” she says.

Some content on ALTBalaji has invited complaints and court cases for Kapoor and her producer-mother, Shobha, both of whom stepped down as heads of the streaming platform in February. Kapoor says she has become “thick-skinned”, adding that she has been mocked for her clothes, her looks, her hair, her work, and her ‘regressive’ television shows, despite having done “pathbreaking work”.

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Another challenge has been to ensure that the financials of the company remain healthy. “In the world of business and in the world of entertainment business, if there is a piece of content, a piece of art, it has to stand the test of commerce,” says Kapoor. “Numbers don’t lie… they can be upsetting, but they don’t lie.”

Sanjay Dwivedi, group CEO of Balaji Telefilms, says Kapoor critically assesses the financial performance of the company. The key metrics are reviewed every Monday and the future course of action is set in motion. “Ekta is a 24x7 entrepreneur who has a sharp, analytical mind… she is able to understand and grasp stuff much faster,” he says. “And though she is tough on goals and employees—as she demands performance and accountability while leading from the front—she also has a calming influence at meetings. When things don’t go as per plan, they are analysed objectively without putting the blame on someone.”

Kapoor confesses to getting the jitters when the numbers do not align with her vision, but she claims to have learnt the art of taking calculated risks. For instance, she ensures a project has strong pre-sales. “And if we are desperate to make a film which we believe in and yet the numbers are not working out, we pad it with a couple of shows or maybe a couple of other films that would then work in the portfolio,” she explains. “If that doesn’t happen, we put it on hold. We break our hearts, not our business.”

The perception of Kapoor being a hard taskmaster, bossy and someone with a no-nonsense attitude precedes her. And that makes people a little wary about her.

Actor Ankita Lokhande, who featured as the lead in Pavitra Rishta, had heard that Kapoor was a strict boss. Naturally, she was a bundle of nerves while meeting Kapoor for the first time at her house late into the night. Fifteen years and several interactions later, the bond is now different.

“I still feel I am not that close to her. I am emotionally connected, but I still can’t call her my friend. I can never do that. She’ll always be my mentor, my Ma’am… that’s her position in my life, where there is respect and love for her,” says Lokhande.

Describing her as warm, gracious and generous, and a producer who challenges you, Krishnan says: “Regardless of what you are arguing about with her, if it’s food time, it’s food time… You are not mixing food with business.”

Numbers vs creativity

Kapoor says maintaining a balance between numbers and creativity has been her biggest challenge. “I have tried to balance it out, and, therefore, I have survived,” she says.

Balan believes Kapoor is willing to try anything that is new and is not bound by what has worked or what is acceptable. “Ekta is fearless when it comes to her choices. She is a fearless storyteller… she is brazen. She is ready to turn things on their head. And she doesn’t care how you are perceiving her,” says the actor.

Lokhande describes her as the most humble person she has met. “She is a mature woman, but she laughs like a baby. I have learnt a lot from her, especially about how to be disciplined and passionate about work,” she says.

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Kapoor did two photo shoots prior to the Forbes India interview on the fifth floor of her bungalow in Juhu, Mumbai, which is adorned with family photographs in the corridor and has a mix of antique and modern furniture. As she posed for the camera in outfits of yellow, red, green and blue, she said this was not her forte. “I had no delusions of wanting to become an actor ever,” she said.

Speaking of what she does want to become, she says that is still a work in progress.

“I want to do something now which is pathbreaking, but you never know what that is. I am hoping to do things which are beyond my comfort zone without risking too much of the company money. I want to be innovative as far as the medium goes as much as content,” she says. As she clasps her hands, it is hard to miss her rings and bracelets with beads.