Ekta Kapoor: TRP of my shows dripped down every time Sachin Tendulkar played

Mumbai: Producer Ekta Kapoor said every time she comes up with a new show, she makes sure that the cricket season is not on.

"Every time I put up a new show on air, I hope it's not cricket season. Because I used to know when Sachin used to play, as you could see the TRPs of my show. I used to ask 'what happened', and got the answer 'oh Sachin played'. That was the only time they used to get affected. It was the same even during 'Kyunki...' and 'Kahaani...' times," Ekta told reporters at an event in Delhi.

The producer, who was in the capital to promote her upcoming show ‘Kundali Bhagya’, which is a spin-off of Zee TV's popular daily soap ‘Kumkum Bhagya’, said the new serial will be her ode to the world of cricket.

She added, "I created Divyanka's character as dentist in 'Yeh Hai Mohabbatein', as I was having a lot of tooth trouble those days. My dentist sorted my problems a lot, so I brought that character alive".

Ekta said the character played by actor Dheeraj Dhoopar is of a young, brash cricketer, which was loosely based on Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya.

"I'm not a fan of cricket. But I've been hearing a lot about this young cricketer Pandya. I haven't seen much of him but I hear he's quite an IPL sensation. For writing the story, we thought why not pick a character like this who is likely to get placed in the national cricket team. We thought this is an interesting world to explore. There's so much madness about it. But, I've heard the gentleman is quite well behaved and polite," she said.

However, Ekta added that the character in her show was somewhat different as he ‘gets carried away with things and is rockstar with his bat’.

Dheeraj said he is a huge fan of Indian skipper Virat Kohli and has tried to emulate his mannerisms for his role prep onscreen.

"I didn't do much homework. But I like Virat... He is a rage in the country. I have somewhere tried to look like him."

‘Kundali Bhagya’, which also stars Shraddha Arya, Anjum Fakih and Manit Joura, premiers on the channel on weekdays from July 12 at 9.30 PM.