Ekta Kapoor: My TV shows are as stupid as others

Also read | Ekta Kapoor on Divyanka Tripathi leaving Yeh Hai Mohabbatein: Love, hate or ignore her but Ishima will stay. See pic

Q: What made you turn to digital platform and have your own app?

Ekta: This is a well thought out decision, a proper business one. The kind of shows we were making earlier, now, there’s no scope of that because TV has become totally massy. I am not even talking about the niche shows, which are on Netflix or totally mass shows which are on TV. But there was an audience, which wanted to see romantic shows, like Pavitra Rishta or a Bade Ache Lagte Hain, but I can’t make them because they don’t get ratings. I know there is an audience, which doesn’t want to watch long-format shows. Then there are many youngsters who don’t want to watch shows with their parents. They want to watch on phone when they are traveling. Then some stories embarrass you. Everything that we make on TV is for families. We don’t want to go into anyone’s house and disrupt. So, when you can do a short format series… and it doesn’t have to be about sex. It can be slightly controversial and even if not that it might be different in genre. With the app, there was an opportunity so I thought let’s do it.

Q: You have been the headliner of the most popular daily soaps, the pioneer in depicting kitchen politics on television and over the years have been criticised for the same. So, when you decided to have your own app, didn’t you think about the skepticism that will follow?

Ekta: I went into films and made Love Sex and Dhokha. That’s when people went into coma! From Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, I went to LSD. After that I think they recovered. Then I did Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai and Dirty Picture. None of my contemporaries did such an eclectic work. So, they know that when it is Alt and Balaji, that’s a middle path. There is a show for the urban mass, then there are for niche audience, and for the rural audience it is TV. The world has opened up, so, there is something for everyone’s taste. So, there will be a youth skepticism but when they will watch it and see there’s something for them they will pick it up. The idea of an app is to change your habits and taste or watching content. TV is going to be there, it’s the staple diet. 80 per cent will watch it but the top end is leaving behind because TV has gone more interiors.

A still from Ekta Kapoor’s web series Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat featuring Ram Kapoor and Sakshi Tanwar.

Q: As someone, who is among the most influential names on the small screen, don’t you think it’s high time you took the charge and brought fresher and more relatable content to the audience?

Ekta: We do that, we have done that on TV and people have rejected it. So, sometimes we will have to share the blame with the audience. So, we made this show about Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh, where a woman after her marriage wants to live her life on her own but the audience rejected it. She can’t move on even if her husband is having an affair. She is a mother, she has two kids and she will have to live for them. This is India. I was shocked with the result. How many times producers, channel heads have sat together and said let’s make emancipated shows. Some worked like the transgender show (Shakti) worked so well. India shocks you. We have done these risks every year. But it is becoming tougher as we are going into smaller towns. They are accepting newer stories but they are yet wanting a lot more escapism.

Q: Coming back to your app, do you follow international web series like Netflix or Amazon originals? If yes, then while conceptualising shows for Alt Balaji, did the quality or standards of those series play in your mind?

Ekta: I watch a lot of Netflix. I love its shows. But I know for a fact that they are English shows and while the content is exemplary, they are meant for a ‘not so local’ audience. We haven’t been exposed in India to anything like updated content. They (international content producers) have gone form updated to super updated. Their audience is ready to watch fresher content. There was a time they did Boston Legal. That could work for India because India hasn’t gone updated to even that level. Now, if I show them Narcos, they won’t understand it. I am not even talking about the masses, I am talking about the urban mass. Middle class India is not going to watch Narcos. They want to watch something fun, not too ‘TV’ but not too ‘English’ also. That’s a big section.

As far as a benchmark is concerned, series on Alt Balaji definitely can’t have the quality of television because TV is producing 100-200 episodes. It has to be way more updated but I can’t afford $5 million or $20 million and 30 days to shoot a web series. I can afford that I update the content far more than what television is. But it won’t be that cost-effective to make a Netflix type show, not for the next few years. Maybe later.

Q: Good or bad, you churned out shows that left an impact but at the same time earned you brickbats, in a way no other TV producer got. Were you defensive initially and finally made peace with it?

Ekta: I have incubated myself. (If) someone tells me, ‘Balaji does shit shows, there is overdone make-up,’ I personally think you haven’t seen my shows. 90 per cent of the people, who make such statements have not seen anything. So, either you have seen some television and make that statement or you have not seen and probably have a problem with anything that is mass. That happens to everyone. If a classy director makes something fully flawed but the critics would love it because that name is attached. Sometimes, something is really nice but it is by a mass director they will have a problem with it. If you are entertaining you can’t be credible in India and vice versa. It is very sad that we actually can’t decipher a product for a product. You already assume with the names attached that how will it be. It is sad. The moment you become popular, there will be an anti-populist movement against you. It is world over. Shonda (Rhimes) has it happening in America, we have it happening here. It is a phenomenon that you can’t run away from and you can’t stand on the defense. You can’t keep defending yourself. You have to move on.

Q: Having been consistently at the top for almost 20 years, have there been instances in your professional life when you felt that the challenges you faced arise due to the fact the you are a woman, and successful?

Ekta: I never thought that because if people pull me down because I am a woman, sometimes it is shockingly a woman only who does it. We, unfortunately, become very competitive with each other. I don’t bother. You can’t help viciousness. A lot of men used to work for me. I was called arrogant, loud and brash for getting my work done, which probably so many directors do on the set. But clearly it wasn’t a big deal. My mom used to tell me, ‘You will get a bad reputation, you scream so much.’ I told her I am doing the same thing that anyone else does. It’s just that they don’t like me saying it. Your work will give you the respect, and years later you won’t have to say it loudly. The problem was because I am a woman.

I remember there was an award function and someone while giving me an award and said, ‘I am so happy to give this young girl an award. In spite of being a woman, she has achieved so much.’ I was like seriously? did you say ‘in spite of being a woman’? I just ended my speech saying, ‘Sir, it’s because I am a woman. It’s an advantage.’ We learn multi-tasking from the time we are born. We combat prejudices. We are born fighters. So, if you don’t have those combative skills in you, I don’t think you understand what an advantage it is to be a woman. My mother is regarded as one of the best production heads in the industry. There are two more names — one is Mohit’s aunt (director Mohit Suri), who looks after Bhatt saab’s production house and other is (director) Vikramaditya Motwane’s mother. They can put any production head back. They are so amazing at their job because budget is something we as women understand.I feel if housewives get out and enter production, they will do a terrific job. We just don’t realise it.