Ekta Kapoor
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Ekta Kapoor (born 7 June 1975) is an Indian television producer, film producer and director who works in
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
cinema and
soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
. She is the joint managing director and creative head of Balaji Telefilms Limited, which was founded in 1994. In 2001,
Balaji Motion Pictures Balaji Motion Pictures is a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Balaji Telefilms Limited which is an Indian film production and distribution company established by Shobha Kapoor and her daughter Ekta Kapoor. Based in Mumbai, it produces and d ...
was launched as a subsidiary company of Balaji Telefilms Limited which is a film production and distribution company. She launched
ALT Balaji ALTBalaji is an Indian subscription based video on demand platform which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Balaji Telefilms Ltd. Launched on 16 April 2017, ALTBalaji is the group's foray into the digital entertainment sphere to create original OT ...
in April 2017. In 2017, Kapoor also launched her biography, Kingdom of the Soap Queen: The Story of Balaji Telefilms Kapoor was honoured with the
Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...
in 2020 for her work in the field of arts.


Personal life

Ektaa Kapoor is the daughter of actors
Jeetendra Ravi Kapoor ( ; born 7 April 1942), known mononymously by his screen name Jeetendra, is an Indian actor who is known for his work in Hindi cinema. He also serves as the chairman of the Balaji Telefilms and Balaji Motion Pictures. Early life ...
and
Shobha Kapoor Shobha Kapoor (born 1 February 1949) is an Indian television, film and web series producer. She is the managing director of Balaji Telefilms Limited, a film, TV and web series production house in Mumbai, India, run by her and her daughter Ekt ...
. Her younger brother,
Tusshar Kapoor Tushar Ravi Kapoor (born 20 November 1976), popular as Tusshar Kapoor, is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi films. Early and personal life Tusshar Kapoor is the son of Indian actors Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor. His sister Ek ...
, is also a
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
actor. She went to school at
Bombay Scottish School, Mahim The Bombay Scottish School, Mahim (BSS or BSS Mahim), popularly known as Scottish, is a private, Christian co-educational day school located at Mahim West in Mumbai, India. The institution was established in 1847 by Scottish Christian missionar ...
and attended college at
Mithibai College The Mithibai College of Arts, Chauhan Institute of Science & Amruthben Jivanlal College of Commerce and Economics is a college affiliated to the University of Mumbai. The college was established in 1961 in Vile Parle, Mumbai by Shri Vile Parle ...
. Kapoor is not married. She has a son named Ravie Kapoor, born on 27 January 2019 via surrogacy.


Career

Ektaa Kapoor started her career at the age of 17, interning with ad and feature filmmaker
Kailash Surendranath Kailash Surendranath is an Indian advertising filmmaker. Surendranath is best known for producing ''Mile Sur Mera Tumhara (unity-in-diversity)'' song in 1986 and directing revised version of the same in 2010. He directed the 2001 romantic comedy ...
. After obtaining financing from her father, she decided to become a producer under her banner
Balaji Telefilms Balaji Telefilms is an Indian company that produces Indian soap operas, reality TV, comedy, game shows, entertainment, and factual programming in several Indian languages. Balaji Telefilms is promoted by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor and is a ...
. Her initial projects were failures, with six of her pilot episodes being rejected, leading to a total loss of . In 1995, '' Mano Ya Na Mano'' was selected by
Zee TV Zee TV (stylised as ZEE TV) is a Hindi general entertainment pay television channel in India. It was launched on 2 October 1992, as the first privately owned TV channel in the country. It is owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Zee TV also ...
and her music-based show ''Dhun Dhamaka'' was chosen by
Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...
. Her 1995 sitcom, '' Hum Paanch'' was her first success. In the 2000s, the letter 'K' became her lucky alphabet and she launched many shows with the first word of every title starting with the same letter, including '' Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi'', which broke all records to become the series to attract the highest TRPs in 2000. Other shows beginning with 'K' include ''
Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki ''Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii'' ( The story of each house) is a Hindi-language Indian soap opera on Indian television which ran on Star Plus from 16 October 2000 to 9 October 2008. The soap opera was created by Ekta Kapoor and was produced by her pr ...
'', ''
Kabhii Sautan Kabhii Sahelii ''Kabhii Sautan Kabhii Sahelii'' (English: ''sometimes sister-wives sometimes friends'') is a Hindi-language Indian television soap opera that premiered on Metro Gold channel on 19 February 2001 and was later shifted to Star Plus after closure o ...
'', ''
Kohi Apna Sa ''Kohi Apna Sa'' is a Hindi drama television series. Shruti, Khushi and Sanjana are best friends and coincidentally all three get married in same family. The three friends live a happy life in each other's company, until tragedy strikes and Shr ...
'', ''
Kaahin Kissii Roz ''Kaahin Kissii Roz'' () is an Indian thriller television series that was broadcast on Star Plus from 23 April 2001 to 23 September 2004. It is digitally available on Disney+ Hotstar. The series starred Mouli Ganguly, Yash Tonk and Sudha Chand ...
'', '' Kalash'', '' Kasautii Zindagii Kay'', ''
Kahiin To Hoga ''Kahiin To Hoga'' () is an Indian soap opera which aired on Star Plus between September 2003 and February 2007. The show was created by Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms and starred Aamna Sharif, Rajeev Khandelwal and Gurpreet Singh. The sho ...
'' and '' Kasamh Se''. In 2001, she was awarded the title of Best Entrepreneur of the Year. By July 2001, Kapoor was producing more than 30 hours of television shows per week. 20 of her 34 serials were listed as the most popular serials, across all major TV channels like Zee TV,
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,
Star Plus StarPlus is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly ''Star India''), a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. The network's programming consists of family dramas, comedies, ...
and Metro. Her projected turnover for 20002001 was listed as . After establishing herself in Hindi TV serials, she began venturing into other regional languages, starting with the
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...
series, ''Kudumbum''. The series became very popular and she then got it dubbed into
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...
and launched it in Hindi as '' Ghar Ek Mandir''. She then ventured into Punjabi,
Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...
,
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...
and
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
languages. , Kapoor wrote her own scripts despite having writers working for her, taking an active interest in all stages of production, while her mother, Shobha, handled the accounts. Kapoor has thus created and produced more than 130
Indian soap opera Indian television drama (in Indian English Indian serials) are television programs written, produced, and filmed in India, with characters played by Indians and episodes broadcast on Indian television. India's first television drama was '' Hu ...
s. Some of her other popular shows include ''
Pavitra Rishta ''Pavitra Rishta'' (International title: ''Sacred Relationship'') is a 2009 Indian soap opera produced by Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms, that aired on Zee TV from 1 June 2009 to 25 October 2014. It is an adaptation of Tamil television serie ...
'', ''
Bade Acche Lagte Hain ''Bade Achhe Lagte Hain'' ( ; English: ''They Look So Good'') is a Hindi Indian soap opera that aired on Sony Entertainment Television from 30 May 2011 to 10 July 2014. Based on the Gujarati play ''Patrani'' by Imtiaz Patel, the soap opera was ...
'', ''
Yeh Hai Mohabbatein ''Yeh Hai Mohabbatein'' ( ''This is love'') was an Indian romantic drama TV series, which aired from 3 December 2013 to 18 December 2019 on Star Plus. Produced by Ekta Kapoor under Balaji Telefilms, it starred Divyanka Tripathi and Karan Pate ...
'', ''
Jodha Akbar ''Jodha Akbar'' is an Indian Historical drama television series that aired from 18 June 2013 to 7 August 2015 on Zee TV and is also digitally available on ZEE5. The show was produced by Ekta Kapoor under Balaji Telefilms. Starring Rajat Tokas a ...
'', '' Naagin'', ''
Kumkum Bhagya ''Kumkum Bhagya'' () (from 2021 onwards) is an Indian Hindi-language drama television series produced by Ekta Kapoor under Balaji Telefilms.
'', ''
Kasam Tere Pyaar Ki ''Kasam Tere Pyaar Ki'' () is an Indian Hindi language television romantic drama series that premiered on 7 March 2016 on Colors TV. It is also digitally available on Voot. Produced by Ekta Kapoor under Balaji Telefilms, it stars Kratika Senga ...
'', ''
Kundali Bhagya ''Kundali Bhagya'' () is an Indian Hindi-language romantic drama television series created by Ekta Kapoor. It premiered on 12 July 2017 on Zee TV. A spin-off series of ''Kumkum Bhagya'', it stars Shraddha Arya, Manit Joura, Ruhi Chaturvedi, S ...
'', ''
Yeh Hai Chahatein ''Yeh Hai Chahatein'' ( This is love) is an Indian Hindi-language drama television series produced by Ekta Kapoor for Star Plus. It is digitally available on Disney+ Hotstar. A spin-off to ''Yeh Hai Mohabbatein'', the show premiered on 19 Decemb ...
'' and several others that were credited with starting a new wave on Indian television, leading to her being known as the "Czarina of television" and "the Queen of Indian Television". She ventured into
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
movie production in 2001 beginning with '' Kyo Kii... Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta'', starring
Sushmita Sen Sushmita Sen (born 19 November 1975) is an Indian actress, model and the winner of the Miss Universe 1994 pageant. She is the first Indian to win the Miss Universe pageant. She was previously crowned Femina Miss India 1994 at the age of 18. A ...
and
Govinda Govinda (), also rendered Govind and Gobind, is an epithet of Vishnu which is also used for his avatars such as Krishna. The name appears as the 187th and the 539th name of Vishnu in '' Vishnu Sahasranama''. The name is also popularly addresse ...
. ''
Kucch To Hai ''Kucch To Hai'' () is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language Slasher film, slasher film written by Rajeev Jhaveri and directed by Anurag Basu and Anil V. Kumar. The film stars Tusshar Kapoor, Esha Deol, Anita Hassanandani, Yash Tonk, Rishi Kapoor, Jeet ...
'' and ''
Krishna Cottage ''Krishna Cottage'' is a 2003 Indian Hindi horror film directed by Santram Varma. It was produced by the mother-daughter team of Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor, better known for producing Indian television soap operas. It starred Sohail Khan, Ish ...
'', based on supernatural themes, followed in 2003 and 2004. The 2005 ''
Kyaa Kool Hai Hum ''Kyaa Kool Hain Hum'' () is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language adult comedy film directed by Sangeeth Sivan and produced by Ekta Kapoor. The film stars Tusshar Kapoor and Ritesh Deshmukh. It is the first installment of ''Kyaa Kool Hain Hum'' serie ...
'' featured her brother
Tusshar Kapoor Tushar Ravi Kapoor (born 20 November 1976), popular as Tusshar Kapoor, is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi films. Early and personal life Tusshar Kapoor is the son of Indian actors Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor. His sister Ek ...
. She then went on to co-produce ''
Shootout at Lokhandwala ''Shootout at Lokhandwala'' is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed and co-written by Apoorva Lakhia and co-written and co-produced by Sanjay Gupta, with Ekta Kapoor serving as producer and Suresh Nair serving as writer. ...
'' with
Sanjay Gupta Sanjay Gupta (born October 23, 1969) is an American neurosurgeon, medical reporter, and writer. He serves as associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, associate professor of neurosurgery at t ...
. This was followed by ''
Mission Istanbul ''Mission Istanbul'' is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film starring Vivek Oberoi, Shriya Saran and Zayed Khan. The film, directed by Apoorva Lakhia, features Abhishek Bachchan in a special appearance. The film is based on an org ...
'' and '' EMI – Liya Hai Toh Chukana Padhega'' in collaboration with Sunil Shetty. None of these films were commercial or critical successes. Between 2010 and 2014, she produced many unsuccessful films, including '' Love Sex aur Dhokha'', ''
Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai ''Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai'' is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language gangster film written by Rajat Arora and directed by Milan Luthria. It stars Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, Prachi Desai and Randeep Hooda. Produced by Ekta Kapoor u ...
'', and ''
Shor in the City ''Shor in the City'' () is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K., and produced by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor starring Tusshar Kapoor, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Preeti Desai, Girija Oak, Radhika ...
''. In 2012, Ektaa Kapoor started the Institute of Creative Excellence, a media training school through her production house Balaji Telefilms. Kapoor has also launched a number of TV series online through her failed digital app ALTBalaji.


Collected works


Discography


Audio


Television

The following is the list of Television shows produced by Kapoor under her banner Balaji Telefilms. Note: television series in bold are the shows presently on air.


Movies

The following is the list of motion pictures produced by Kapoor under her banner
Balaji Motion Pictures Balaji Motion Pictures is a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Balaji Telefilms Limited which is an Indian film production and distribution company established by Shobha Kapoor and her daughter Ekta Kapoor. Based in Mumbai, it produces and d ...
.


Web series

The following is the list of web series created/developed/produced by Kapoor under her banner ALT Digital Media Entertainment for her
video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
platform
ALT Balaji ALTBalaji is an Indian subscription based video on demand platform which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Balaji Telefilms Ltd. Launched on 16 April 2017, ALTBalaji is the group's foray into the digital entertainment sphere to create original OT ...
.


Accolades

Kapoor also works on script writing, creative conversion and concept building. Having been chosen as one of 50 of ‘Asia's Most Powerful Communicators’ by Asia Week magazine in 2001, she has helped launch the careers of many actors and actresses. She was chosen to lead the
Confederation of Indian Industries The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group headquartered in New Delhi, India, founded in 1895. CII engages business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape globa ...
(CII) entertainment committee. The other awards she received are; The Society Achiever Award and The Best Entrepreneur of the Year 2001. Kapoor is regarded as one of the most powerful ladies in the television industry and is amongst the top 25 woman entrepreneurs of India. She was awarded
Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...
, the fourth highest civilian honour, in 2020 for her work in the field of arts. Kapoor has also received awards as the producer of
Balaji Telefilms Balaji Telefilms is an Indian company that produces Indian soap operas, reality TV, comedy, game shows, entertainment, and factual programming in several Indian languages. Balaji Telefilms is promoted by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor and is a ...
. These include the Indian Television Academy Awards,
Indian Telly Awards The Indian Telly Awards is an annual award for excellence both on-screen and behind-the-scenes of Hindi-language television. Conceptualised and created by Anil Wanvari, the founder, CEO of media and services group, indiantelevision.com, they a ...
, Kalakar Awards,
Asian Television Awards The Asian Television Awards (launched in 1996), is an appreciation to recognize and reward programming and production excellence in the Asian television industry. Held every December, the Awards comprises 56 categories across news, documentarie ...
, Apsara Awards, Zee Rishtay Awards, 3rd Boroplus Awards, New Talent Awards, BIG Star Entertainment Awards, 4th Boroplus Awards, GR8! Women Awards, Asia's Social Empowerment Awards, Lions Gold Awards, Stardust Awards, Screen Awards, Pune International Film Festival, Zee Gaurav Puraskar, National Media Network Film and TV Awards, the Global Indian Film and TV Honors, and ETC Bollywood Business Awards. The following is the recent list of awards received by Kapoor:


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kapoor, Ekta 1975 births Living people Indian women television producers Indian television producers Mithibai College alumni Indian women film producers Hindi film producers Sindhi people Film producers from Mumbai Businesswomen from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian businesswomen 20th-century Indian businesspeople 21st-century Indian businesswomen 21st-century Indian businesspeople Women television producers Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts