Ekta Kapoor

Ekta Kapoor is a Hindi film and television producer whom fans call the Queen of Indian Television and the Content Czarina. She founded Balaji Telefilms and is best known for the serials Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, along with the film Dream Girl (2019). She received the Padma Shri in 2020. Her breakthrough came in 2000, when Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi went on air on StarPlus. The show reached a TRP of 22.4, the highest for an Indian serial, and was the most successful serial of its time. Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii followed in 2000 and Kasautii Zindagii Kay in 2001. That same year she started Balaji Motion Pictures to move into cinema. Her films include Udta Punjab (2016), Veere Di Wedding (2018), Dream Girl (2019) and Pagglait (2021). She then produced Ek Villain Returns (2022), Dream Girl 2 (2023), Crew (2024) and The Sabarmati Report (2024), and in 2026 she backed Bhooth Bangla. Kapoor built her name on Hindi soap operas that drew wide audiences through the late 1990s and the 2000s, and she later carried that reach into films. She launched the video on demand platform ALTBalaji in 2017. The Padma Shri honoured her work in the arts, and in 2023 she received the International Emmy Directorate Award at the 51st International Emmy Awards.