Drawn into TV production at the young age of 19, how Ekta Kapoor became India’s ‘Soap Rani’


The story of the soap queen is quite like an episode from one of her shows. There’s a seemingly simple person put in an unforeseen and challenging situation, and she goes on to triumph over it, against all odds.

The founder of Alt Balaji Entertainment Ekta Kapoor started her career at the early age of 19 with her father Jeetendra, who was a veteran actor. Both father and daughter worked with the London-based channel TV Asia. Ekta being her innovative self gave the best ideas to shoot the pilots of five or six shows. “At 17, my father told me to either get married or to go work, instead of partying like I wanted to, and that I won’t get anything other than my pocket money. To earn some extra cash, I worked with an ad agency. I was perfectly fine with the situation and thought I would live a very mediocre life, get married at 22 and settle down to a life of enjoyment. Unfortunately, or fortunately, nothing we plan ever happens.”

Her first big achievement was when she was only 19, when her first daily soap Hum Paanch was aired on television. After that, Ekta has only been greeted with applause. There were her famous, addictive TV serials and her family drama movies, all of them hugely successful. Ekta loves it, and plans to keep doing more of the same.

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