Ektaa Kapoor is often considered a pathbreaker when it comes to Indian television and a pioneer with the kind of shows she made. She changed the face of it but in a recent interview Ektaa opened up about a pivotal moment early in her life when Rajinikanth visited her home. She revealed that she got a break because of the legendary actor. Noticing that she seemed low, he asked her what was bothering her. “Once Rajinikanth came to my house for lunch. He is good friends with my father. He saw I was upset. When he asked me what I wanted to do, I said, ‘I just want to work.’ I was upset because I didn’t have work. He liked it. He then said, ‘Fine, I can help you arrange a meeting with someone, not anything more than that.’”That meeting turned out to be a turning point. Rajinikanth connected her with Kalanidhi, granddaughter of M. Karunanidhi. “After that meeting, he gave me a non-prime-time South Indian show. However, they questioned how a North Indian would be able to handle a South Indian show. We had to buy slots. We wrote the show in Hindi, sent my team to shoot with local actors, and it became the number one show. I then used its TRPs as proof and started getting opportunities in Hindi television,” Ekta recalled.Building on that success, she later adapted the same concept into Hindi as ‘Ghar Ek Mandir’, which helped her gain a foothold in the industry. Her big breakthrough came when she pitched ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ to Star Plus, a show that would go on to redefine Indian TV and cement her legacy.Despite her entry point being facilitated by her father Jeetendra’s friendship with Rajinikanth, Ektaa dismissed any notions of nepotism, calling it “non-existent.”In an earlier podcast with Usha Kakade Productions, she also revealed a rather personal reason behind starting her career so early. “When I was 17, I was always going out with friends, roaming around and bunking college. So, my dad told me that I had to either focus on my studies or do some work. Otherwise, he said he would get me married. That scared me so much that I felt I had to start working. It was like my dad had hung a sword over my head,” she said.Ektaa admitted that she wasn’t ready for marriage at that stage and simply wanted to enjoy life. “I was enjoying life a lot — sometimes partying, sometimes travelling. At 18, who wanted to get tied into the bond of marriage? I was like I don’t want to get into all this. I wanted to work, and even later I kept working and never got married,” she added.
