She has been the undisputed queen of the television industry for more than a decade and a half. From making successful soaps to creating stars out of televsion actors, Ekta Kapoor now has to divide her time between the small and the big screens. After the tremendous success of her films, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai and The Dirty Picture, Ekta has made an entry to the list of the most powerful filmmakers of the industry and she grins while saying, “I’m having the best of both the worlds.”
Although she has managed to find a strong foothold in Bollywood, the Kapoor girl admits that television will always be her first love. “I am what I am because of television. How can I change my priorities? Now that my company is making films as well, I have to divide my time between the two. But I balance it out,” she specifies.
Ekta, who is the daughter of yesteryear-star Jeetendra and sister of Bollywood actor Tusshar Kapoor, was known for being a difficult person to work with owing to her erratic working pattern, but the 36-year-old has changed many things about her working style now. “A lot of changes have taken place in my working pattern. The only aspect that still stays is my being a hard taskmaster. I have still not given up on that,” she says.
Apart from her successful shows and hit films, Ekta has also been quite a trendsetter on television with her huge sets, blingy sari- clad vamps and young looking mothers. Taking a cue from that, now her popular serial Pavitra Rishta is the latest one to undergo a generation leap and the 28-year-old protagonist Ankita Lokhande will be seen playing a 50-year-old.
“Look at our mothers today. They are so well maintained and look much younger than their age. So why do I have to make my actresses look old? I will not allow the career of my actresses to suffer because of me. I am very careful about that,” said Ekta defending her ideas and her shows.