Opinion When Bill Gates met Tulsi: Indians are likely to pay heed to the sermons of their favourite bahu

If 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' was tapping into Gates’s global heft to rake in more numbers, the businessman was doing exactly the same

If Irani’s intention behind bringing Gates on the show was to use the enduring popularity of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi to raise awareness about women and child health, it must be appreciated

Trisha Mukherjee

October 24, 2025 03:27 PM IST First published on: Oct 24, 2025 at 03:27 PM IST

Nostalgia works in strange ways. Cringe-worthy memories that were best thought forgotten, when revisited decades later, can stir up emotions you never knew you had. For ’90s kids, those memories likely include flashes of Ekta Kapoor’s K serials playing across houses. This is a rather winding way of saying that I watched a few episodes of the new Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, and they were something of a roller-coaster ride. Parvati’s appearance on the show, as the title track of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii played in the background, opened a flood of memories. I may even have been a tad bit misty-eyed reminiscing about the old days. However, the next three-hours-and-a-half – six episodes – were melodramatic to say the least. New actors failed to land the poorly-written dialogues, and the overacting gave you the ick. Why then did I embark on this obviously disastrous watch party, you ask? To find out what all the fuss is about.

For the last few days, Smriti Irani, aka our very own Tulsi Virani, has been hogging the screen on pretty much all TV channels, talking about American businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates’s appearance on the show as a breakthrough moment in Indian television’s history. Yes, Gates does appear on the show. And after sitting through the entire episode, I have one question: What is all the fuss about?

After a video of Tulsi talking about the need for nutrition for expecting mothers at a god bharai (baby shower) ceremony goes viral, Gates gets on a video call with her. Just like that. During their three-minute-long conversation, which Gates opens with “Jai Shree Krishna” and ends with “Happy Diwali”, they talk about maternal health, nutrition for mother and child, how society can contribute towards creating strong mothers and other related topics. This is not Gates’s first appearance on a TV show. He did cameos for several shows in the past, all of which he used as an opportunity to promote his work, in Microsoft and through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. On Frasier, it was to talk about Microsoft products, specifically Windows XP. In Silicon Valley, it was about his personal investments, particularly in the energy sector. On The Big Bang Theory and the Korean show, You Quiz on the Block, it was to promote the foundation’s work. His appearance on Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi wasn’t any different. The foundation, which began working in India in 2003, has worked in collaboration with the Indian government in the sectors of public health, sanitation, agriculture and financial inclusion. “Their initiatives, which began with an HIV prevention programme called Avahan in 2003, now include improving maternal and child health, developing affordable vaccines and implementing sanitation solutions,” notes the foundation’s website.

If Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi was tapping into Gates’s global heft to rake in more numbers, the businessman was doing exactly the same – using the show’s generational popularity to publicise the foundation’s work in the country. Nothing more, nothing less, making the 72-hour-long frenzy around his appearance equal parts unnecessary and misplaced.
This is also not Irani’s first meeting with Gates. During her tenure as the Union minister for Women and Child Development (2019-2024), she was on a panel with him, where the two discussed public health. She even got Gates to put tadka as they discussed how nutrition, particularly for expecting mothers, need not be gourmet food but simple home-cooked meals made with the right ingredients.

If Irani’s intention behind bringing Gates on the show was to use the enduring popularity of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi to raise awareness about women and child health, it must be appreciated. There is no medium like the visual one, and Indians are likely to pay heed to the sermons of their favourite bahu.

But if this is Irani’s idea of finding her way back into the political limelight – she has apparently been incessantly upskilling herself, from teaching fintech at University of California, Berkeley, and pursuing a degree in sociology from the University of Arden in the UK, to delivering lectures on gender and health at conferences across the world while also doing all the party work designated to her – following her massive defeat in Amethi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Indians also know better than to put their faith on her role off the screen. Tulsi: 1. Smriti: 0

trisha.mukherjee@expressindia.com