'An Out-of-the-box Conversation' between Ms Ekta Kapoor and Mr. Dilip Cherian New Delhi: January 15, 2013

The conversation between Ms. Ekta Kapoor & Mr. Cherian, one of India’s best known PR guru’s, began by how she manages to churn out episode after episode of sheer drama on the TV screen and yet garner popularity and command attention from the Indian household. Acknowledging the fact that this is a “tough job” to do, Ms Kapoor maintained that giving women something to identify with, as well as adding aspiration to this effort has done the trick for her. In a world where viewers suffer from attention deficiency it is imminent to give your viewers something that touches their hearts.

A hard taskmaster herself and a workaholic Ms Kapoor believes in being a leader than being a boss. When asked why her characters “wake up, with makeup” and are perennially draped in gorgeous sarees, Ms Kapoor, pointed out how people often fail to notice some of the serious issues that her serials have dealt with over the years. Countering the popular belief that her journey and characters have been all but about sartorial delight, she stated that her next frontier instead is to infuse even more interesting and grey characters in her women on TV. She said her success is purely based on merit and hard work even though she is a firm believer in astrology and planets.

Ms Kapoor answered a plethora of questions from the audience that ranged from queries about casting opportunities in her next project to her roles and responsibilities towards bringing in a change in the society and moulding public opinion on much neglected issues.

It was indeed a very enriching morning, where all of us left much wiser, entertained and enthused.