Ekta Kapoor
About
Hailed as the TRP Queen and the pioneer of daily soap entertainment, Ekta Kapoor is a Padma Shri awardee and is credited for revamping India’s television landscape eternally.
Ekta is the managing director, co-founder, and creative head of Balaji's Telefilms. Her shows have been topping the TRPs for years and continue to be channel drivers for most general entertainment broadcasters.
At the age of 17, Ekta began her career as an intern with ad and feature filmmaker Kailash Surendranath followed by becoming a producer for her own banner Balaji Telefilms.
Her initial projects were failures, with six of her pilot episodes being rejected, leading to a loss yet she kept trying with all her efforts and finally, her first sitcom Hum Paanch became her first success.
She inspired an entire genre of what came to be known as saas-bahu serials in the 2000s and gave Indian television iconic shows that witnessed a run for years, such as Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kasauti Zindagi Ki, Kasamh Se, and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii among others.
She began venturing into other regional languages, starting with Tamil followed by Telugu, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali languages and has produced over 130 Indian soap operas.
Ekta started as a producer in 2001 with the movie Kyo Kii... Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta under her banner Balaji Motion Pictures, and has also produced blockbusters like Udta Punjab, The Dirty Picture, Once Upon a Time in Mumbai & Ragini MMS to name a few.
After changing the face of Indian television & making her mark in mainstream cinema, Ekta has plotted a digital future with ALTBalaji & launched successful shows like Bose, Dev DD & Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat for the younger generation who prefer watching content on their phones.
Awards and Accomplishments
Awards and Accomplishments
- Ekta was chosen as one of 50 of ‘Asia’s Most Powerful Communicators’ by Asia Week magazine in 2001.
- She also received ‘The Society’s Achiever Award’ in 2001.
- Ekta is regarded as one of the most powerful ladies in the television industry and is among the Top 25 women entrepreneurs in India.
- She was conferred with the Indian Television Academy’s ‘Sterling Icon Entertainment of the Year’ in 2017.
- In August 2018, she was featured in the ‘500 Most Influential People in the World’ list by International Magazine Variety.
- In 2020, she was given the ‘Padma Shri’, the fourth highest civilian honor, for her contributions to the field of arts.
- Ekta has also received awards as the producer of Balaji Telefilms including the ‘Indian Television Academy Awards’, ‘Indian Telly Awards’, ‘Asian Television Awards’, ‘Zee Rishtay Awards’, ‘BIG Star Entertainment Awards’, ‘GR8! Women Awards’, and Asia’s Social Empowerment Awards, among others.
Why Ekta Kapoor ?
From being the queen of Indian television to being a power producer who changed the game with edgy and youthful film content to now being the only woman entrepreneur to bring a revolutionary change on the digital landscape by launching her own OTT platform, Ekta Kapoor is truly a force to reckon with! Her sheer understanding of the market and audience, her guts to present something new to her viewers, and unafraid to take risks, showcases her resilience, her bravery, and how successfully she has accomplished things in her life.
