In the late 1990s, Ekta Kapoor established herself as a disruptor in the Indian television industry with daily soaps and has been ruling the small screen for the last two decades, facing brickbats and adulation with equal élan. Her television content has often been called regressive but Ekta has no qualms in admitting to it and goes on to explain that her shows cater to the mass audience. In the last few years, she has also made it big in Bollywood producing films such as Lipstick Under My Burkha, Udta Punjab, Ek Villain and has also forayed into the digital space. The producer who recently became a mother, chats about her work, catering to masses and her son Ravie.
Excerpts from the interview:
For years, your content on television has been termed as regressive but your films are more modern. How do you choose the projects you want to produce?
I think it depends on the individual viewing patterns. Television is something that is watched at home and in a family setting where nothing radical will be watched. It’s just the way we are as a society; we feel uncomfortable watching sex scenes with family. As a production house, we don’t take up radical topics, though our shows are very OTT, dramatic and melodramatic. We suspend reality all the time. As far as films are concerned, it is a choice. I pick up a topic, which has got a voice, and people go to the theatre to watch it. Their tastes are very different from the ones who watch my shows.
A lot of veteran TV personalities have often said that TV has gone back by 50 years with the collective content it produces. Do you agree with it?
I agree my shows are regressive. See, when you put your content in a public domain, it is open for criticism. So, while the West does Game of Thrones we do Naagin. What we are showing is regressive. But then, we are also happily watching a show with dragons and we have no problems with that. We can’t spend on special effects as much as they do. What we spend on an entire episode, they spend on a scene. We work with a lot of challenges and come up with content that may be not apt for the urban niche population. But that’s okay; we don’t make this content for them. A lot of viewers want escapism. They don’t want to watch reality on television. The urban audiences want to watch reality and that’s a worldwide phenomenon. The populist medium always gets pulled down because that deals with escapism. My audience wants to feel good and that happens when we suspend reality.
Your web platform — ALTBalaji — is producing content that’s bold, surprising and different from your TV shows? How do you keep ahead of the competition from foreign platforms such as Netflix or Prime?
As I said, anything that I put out, will be too regressive for some. Others have a problem with too much sex and I am like ‘what’s the problem with sex?’ They (Netflix and Prime) are putting a lot of content so I have to make something even better. I am not in a competition with anyone. Netflix caters to the urban niche audiences and I deal with the mass audience who pays '30 a month for the app. The day you curb the natural need of the audience, you spoil it. People ask me how I am so bold and tell them ‘I have no problem with sex’. I think it is a natural thing and people either see it or consume it.
What’s your take on Supreme Court issuing orders to keep a check on the OTT content?
My belief is if there is any prohibition in society, it will cause a bigger need. If they ban it, then I will have to produce more such content. You have to take risks, and keep working all the time.
You are one of the very few women who own a successful studio. Does being a woman boss also dictate the kind of content the studio produces?
No. A lot of people feel that I can dictate the content I am making, but actually, I can’t, because I run a business. And when you run a business, you have to make what people want to watch. Otherwise, you’ll be marginalised. That’s what people want you to do. I was told that I can’t make a comedy or sex comedy because I am a woman. I disagree and there lies the difference in my argument. I should be doing everything that is gender agnostic. Why should I be seen as a woman with walls? I have no problems with any content that I produce. Of course, I won’t produce misogynistic stuff.
As a creative individual, how do you challenge the boundaries and keep innovating?
I make my own decisions. That’s the big power I have. Kya Kool Hain Hum was pretty wild, and I had to bear the backlash. But that didn’t stop me. I believe either I make it or someone else will.
You are one of the busiest personalities in the industry and also a mother. Do you ever suffer from the guilt of neglecting one for the other?
I think my son has got a mother who is a workaholic. A lot of people keep asking me why I have to work? It is because I want to work. If you are working to support your family, then it is fine, but when you say it is your passion and you want to work, then it becomes an ambition, according to the society. And that’s wrong. I don’t think I have to take this call of giving up anything, now that I am a mother. I knew I am going to multitask and I have to give up a little bit of my social life. I knew I will be able to manage it well.
How has your son changed you as a person? Are you calmer now?
He is not happy in my arms because of my rings and bracelets. I’ll soon have to give them up. I don’t know if he has brought any change in me as he is only three months old. I seriously think that I have better mornings now. A smaller being in the house always helps.
