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Ekta Kapoor, Creative Director and Member at Balaji Telefilms, is a Gemini, loves telling stories and reading books and of course loves mirrors, Ekta keeps looking at her reflection many at times. Officially, On 10 November 1994, she began her employment at Balaji Telefilms, from then till now Kapoor sleeps, dreams and eats her serials, she loves Italian and Thai food manually.
A commerce graduate from the University of Mumbai, she finished schooling from Bombay Scottish school. Ekta has also completed a course in Journalism and always thinks of grading, casting, selecting, analyzing, concept building, script design, creative conversion and so on to acquire new ideas to Innovate. Proudly, she was a producer at 19.
Jeetendra’s daughter produced serials like Mano ya Na Mano and Hum Paanch for Zee TV. Ekta first tasted success with Hum Paanch, the comedy serial hanging around Anand Mathur, Beena, Priya Tendulkar and her five daughters. The show brought in good fortunes for her and the company, after which the long lasting family saga Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi, changed the entire picture of Indian Television - Literally, it's in the History. Ekta Kapoor is involved at the conceptualization stage for the first few episodes (20) of all her serials, following which respective creative heads take over.
Ekta Kapoor is the engine driver for the driving force of Balaji Express, and the one thing common in all the Balaji soaps, which prove that they are Ekta oriented, is that they have pathological strains of phages and at times even Venom, which may show a positive or a negative reaction. The success of the company evenly, in constrain proportions, also lies with Shobha Kapoor, the proud mother of this masterpiece child.
To attain this stature was not an Crocodile and an Egyptian Plover game, but it was Hard wor , Passion, and a Fire in the stomach titanic struggle for almost six long years which brought the Star and the Sun to Shine on her. Ekta's conceptualism of the saas-bahu saga made Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi, the biggest hit of the 21st Century, which had a struc a chord with its viewers. The self-confessed control frea has moved on to making films, though the factor continues in her life, stronger than ever. From the small screen to the big, she still courts controversy with the way she deals with some of the subjects in her serials, she still hires and fires people, and wears the Balaji tikka as her proudest ‘shringar’.
Truly, It's not Ekta Kapoor alone for the Bull's eye success of Balaji Telefilms, rather there is a strong team of more than 300 professional's who are sincerely working behind the scenes and so the Familiarity must have gone to the company and its team and not Ekta alone.
Ekta is the proud receiver of
One of "Asia's 50 Most Powerful Communicators" from Asia Wee magazine in 2001
"Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year" from Ernst & Young in 2001
"Corporate Excellence" from Bharat Petroleum in 2002
"Rajiv Gandhi Award" in 2002
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As creative director of Balaji Telefilms in Mumbai, Kapoor, 31, continues to produce absorbing dramas - whether it's about an ambitious tycoon or a beautiful but scheming wife or a 70-year-old grandmother looking for a job - it consistently strikes a chord with viewers across the subcontinent. Kapoor now hopes to find similar success with audiences in a different medium: the big screen.
Now she is making new records on Big Screen also. Ekta Kapoor (born June 7, 1975) is the Creative Head of Balaji Telefilms. She is the daughter of Indian actor of yesteryears Jeetendra and sister of Tusshar Kapoor. She has produced a host of television serials based on conflicts in Indian joint families. She is notorious for her idiosyncrasy for naming all of the TV Serials produced by her with names starting from letter " ". This is generally attributed to some sort of superstitious belief.
Starting off from the scratch with her star father Jitendra's status helping her a little in pulling off her dream ambition, Ekta Kapoor gambled her way into television production.
Though her dreams appeared to shatter as her creative products flopped on the small screen, her confidence in her self and her belief in the Almighty saw her pulling off success with a hilarious comedy show "Hum Paanch". After that there has been no looking bac for this young wizard of Indian television. Mrs. Shobha Kapoor (Ekta's mother), the Managing Director of Balaji, is in charge of the overall administrative and production activities of the company. Ms. Ekta Kapoor, the creative director in the company, oversees the creative side of the company's business. She has been the instrumental factor behind BTL's foray into regional channels. Academically she has a graduation degree in Commerce from the University of Mumbai.
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Late into her teens, she was only known as Jeetendra's daughter. Today, she has her own identity - as Ekta Kapoor, the creative head of Balaji Telefilms. She started off when she was just 17. Since then, she has worked, eaten and slept only television - thinking of concepts, casting, styling, selecting technicians, shooting and scheduling, marketing and acquiring the new skills required to succeed.
This 27-year old entrepreneur is a Jeetendra-Shobha product biologically and a Bombay Scottish School one academically. Later, she joined Mithibai College, but lazed around aimlessly. She did not believe in hard wor and excellence in academics, unlike her brother Tusshar who wept even when he secured 96 per cent marks! Trying her luc , she hung around the shoots of Kailash Surendranath, the ad and feature filmmaker - but to no avail. Seeing his daughter's predicament, papa Jeetendra came to his daughter's rescue. Men are more attached to their daughters than sons, and Jeetendra is no exception.
Jeetendra advised TV-serial production and offered her money for the same. Realising the worth of her father's contribution and concern, she got down to business. She made six pilots and three episodes for each pilot, running up a bill of nearly Rs 5 million. All of them were rejected. His daughter being the most prized possession in his world, the doting father asked her not to lose heart and offered her more money to try again. And then? Hum Paanch happened.
Success changed her completely. She began craving for more, open to improvement and determined to make it to the top. Today, Balaji is no more a private limited enterprise but a public limited company. And no prizes for guessing how much sweat, toil and labour the largest and youngest single producer of television software in the history of India's entertainment industry has put in! You can definitely put a few bucks on her dream of making Balaji the biggest content provider in India!
Not so long ago, she was chosen to head the Confederation of Indian Industries' (CII) entertainment committee. She is a Society achiever and The Best Entrepreneur of the Year 2001, apart from being the proud recepient of quite a few Indian Telly Awards in the last two years.
My gut feeling tells me that she has her real life role all sewn up. Despite being in the thic controversies off and on, she has never been at a loss of words - at least with me.
The calm and collected spirit has always been evident in her since I first set eyes on this neat little brown-haired girl. One word from her secretary to her that Vickey Lalwani is waiting to meet her and she comes almost running out to welcome me in. Dressed in a blac T-shirt and blue jeans, she does not change my impression of her. I am, to say the least, glad. No prizes for guessing why! This time too, she is not going to be at a loss of words! Excerpts from our chatathon-
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