Young Achievers

'Prime'time Princess

Ekta Kapoor
Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms

If entertainment is Queen of the ICE age, Ekta Kapoor is the princess. Not all fairy tales have an easy start…there is a struggle after which the hard work pays off. That is Ekta Kapoor's life. Despite a family that was into films, the thought of facing the camera never interested her. The concept of being behind the camera however intrigued her. When she would tell people about her ideas and what she aspired to do, she would watch the interest in their eyes dwindle. That did not deter her, but it certainly made her strive to get back to some serious work and prove her capabilities.

The daughter of Hindi movie star Jeetendra, Ekta is the creative director for the family-run 'Balaji Telefilms'-a TV Production Company that has seen its share of struggles and a meteoric rise in the past years. The seven-year-old company has moved from clocking 8.5 programming hours in January 2000 to 33 hours in January 2001.

For someone who started as an "assistant model coordinator", Ekta today has 18 shows on air and more in the making! With the popularity rate of some of her serials touching 8.38, they have taken on the mighty 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (KBC) and its 8.91 (the Television Rating Points (TRP) as on week ending January 7, 2001).

"It has been seven years of hard work,'' says Ekta "But I've enjoyed myself. I get a kick when people react to the characters I have created. The power to make people cry, laugh and dream constantly amazes me," she adds.

So what else has changed? Well, revenues for one! The company's turnover last year was Rs 20 crore and she projects an increase of Rs 25 crore by the year 2002. That's one high a 25-year-old will find difficult to live down!!!!

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