It’s the day of the return of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, arguably the most seminal daily soap to grace the face of Indian television. Produced by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms, the reboot will see Smriti Irani return as the popular Tulsi Virani, as the show airs on StarPlus and JioHotstar starting today on July 29.
With the return of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi expected to challenge Anupamaa, the show headlined by Rupali Ganguly and produced by Rajan Shahi, Ekta dismissed the “unfair” and “unnecessary” comparison. “That’s in such bad taste. She’s such a big star! Anupamaa, the show, and Rajan, the creator, have done what nobody could do in the last seven years. They’ll continue to be number 1. And they should continue to be number 1,” said Ekta.
In the interview with Brut India, she continued, “We’re coming in with our purpose, to tell our story. These unfair comparisons with lead characters and lead shows are so unnecessary. Pitting women against each other, content against each other is so uncalled for.” Like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Anupamaa also airs on StarPlus and streams on JioHotstar.
On Wednesday, StarPlus even dropped a promo which featured a crossover between the two shows. In the promo, Rupali’s Anupamaa is seen video-calling Smriti’s Tulsi and welcoming her back in Gujarati. She points out that while Anupamaa will air at 10 pm on StarPlus, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi will follow right after at 10:30 pm.
Interestingly, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi also first premiered in the 10:30 pm slot back in 2000, right after Amitabh Bachchan’s popular quiz show Kaun Banegi Crorepati. In fact, both shows premiered on the same day, July 4, 2000. Sameer Nair, who was the head of programming at StarPlus back then, told SCREEN how Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi never needed a hoarding despite having skyrocketing TRPs across years.
However, Smriti Irani recently said in an interview with Mojo Story that putting her show in the 10:30 pm slot in 2000 was more of a “polite rejection.” She said it was positioned to fail, but Ekta’s story saw it through. Nair feels placing Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi right after KBC catapulted it into unprecedented popularity.
Ekta recently confessed she was firmly against the idea of bringing back Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi for a second innings on television, but eventually decided to go ahead with it as she wanted to make a show that’s not afraid to raise important issues. “Why would I want to shake up nostalgia? You can never compete with nostalgia. It always remains supreme,” Ekta wrote on her social media before the launch.
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“We will never win against nostalgia. The fight though, is not about winning. It is about impact,” added Ekta, further explaining the sociocultural impact the daily soap had on Indian families, particularly women, back in the early 2000s. Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi ran from 2000 till 2008.
