Television Queen Ektaa R Kapoor delves into the evolution of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, reflecting on how the iconic show transformed over the years and how Tulsi 2.0 was envisioned. She breaks down its growth, legacy and the creative decisions behind its modern revival!
00:00I think I'm sure at that time Kyunki was super successful,
00:28but nobody thought Kyunki 2 will come back and become equally successful.
00:33Tell us a bit more about the new season and what has remained the same maybe and what has really changed.
00:41I think I try to put in what I would say is a new twist to a very integral primary story and character.
00:52So we decided this time that in the very first episode, I still remember, I was in New York with my son and I was like,
01:00you know, I'm standing here, I've evolved, why is Tulsi going to be, of course she will go, she'll do her protein shakes now,
01:09instead of just making chai in the kitchen, but she will be stuck to what she calls her domain.
01:14There's no problem in that.
01:16There has to be some evolution to the character.
01:20So I called up my right and I remember telling him, I said, I want Tulsi to weigh herself.
01:24They're like, what?
01:25I said, yeah, her insecurities are as much a part of the show as her wins, as her domain.
01:33I said, make her stand on a scale and get shocked at the weight and say the scale is not working.
01:39I do that very often and that's how we decided that this is how we're going to deal with this character.
01:46Her blouses won't fit her.
01:48Her daughter will troll her, thinking it's concern, without realizing, we do it so often with our mothers.
01:55We say, oh, it's not looking nice, so please go and change.
01:57Without realizing, you're somewhere feeding that insecurity of the other person.
02:03And nicest cities in families usually are the least important thing.
02:06You know, so, and we cross boundaries so often.
02:10So I was like, just make this a part of this new and it was lapped up.
02:16It worked.
02:18Thank God.
02:19Thank God.
02:20Amazing.
02:21You know, we talked a lot about the broadcast universe and TV soaps, of course, have been very focused on female audiences.
02:31But when the digital shift started, you know, in the digital world, first with internet penetration and then many other metrics were actually more favoring male watch time.
02:43But I'm hopeful that now we see a big rise in connected TVs and they're already touching nearly 100 million households.
02:54How do you think, you know, this will change storytelling, you know, from the Kewki era to the female audiences or even broader family audiences on the connected TV screens?
03:08Because this is some of the, you know, prime audiences in our urban clusters.
03:15I personally believe as unfair we've been to the men on television.
03:20That unfair men have been to women on the digital medium.
03:24So we haven't really catered to female centric audiences, female audiences on digital like we didn't cater to men on television.
03:33This is because of the basic divide between subscription led programming and advertising led programming.
03:40Advertising is more favorable to women.
03:42The subscription is more favorable to men.
03:44But with connected TV, finally digital will find a space for lovely urban, urban mass, beautiful stories for women.
03:58And they will start discussing women in different spheres of society, working women, midlife crisis, stories that have not found a voice till now.
04:10Urban, soft romances, very, you know, we call them now the Korean dramas, but I call them the dramas that were Indian 10 years ago.
04:21Finally, we will have those kind of shows, movies or on out there in the market because connected TV is going to bring advertiser led programming for the urban mass woman again.
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