Smriti Irani has often talked about how she and producer Ekta Kapoor addressed several women’s issues with their seminal television show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi back in the 2000s. With TV being a female actor-led medium, Smriti was even paid better than her male co-stars after the historic success of her daily soap.
But being a woman came with its own cost for Smriti. “My son was three days old when I came back to the set of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Why? Because everyone wanted to watch a new episode daily at 10:30 pm,” recalled Smriti, who revealed she continued to work on the show even post a miscarriage.
While late producer Ravi Chopra allowed Smriti Irani to take a week off, the actor said Ekta Kapoor couldn’t afford that because her show aired every day. Smriti said on Raj Shamani’s podcast, “Somebody in the production went and told Ekta, ‘We’re ready to shoot. But Smriti Irani isn’t available. She is lying. Nothing has actually happened to her.’ So I had to go back with my hospital reports to prove it actually happened.”
She recalled another instance of being discriminated against back then. “I was working with somebody till the last day of the ninth month (of pregnancy). It was a daily talk show, Kuch Dil Se. I was told to record a bank of worth 30 days and come back to work after 30 days,” recalled Smriti. She continued to shoot for both the talk show and the daily soap simultaneously because she’d just bought a house and wanted to repay the EMI quickly, despite being warned against working endlessly during her pregnancy by her family and doctors.
“I’m in the hospital after giving birth to my baby, and I get a wire: ‘You’re fired.’ And I’d just shot (for the talk show) a day before. They were just waiting for me to get into the hospital to tell me I’m fired. They’d already made a bank so they could replace me. Their intention was to use my hard work in favour of my replacement,” said Smriti.
However, Smriti Irani revealed her response was to just smile because she had faith that the unfair move by the talk show’s makers would come back to bite them. “They hired a film actor for it. Their exhibit was much bigger, they were a bigger name. And the show shut down. It never started again,” said Smriti.
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The talk show, Kuch Dil Se, aired on Sab TV in the early 2000s. Smriti not only was the face, but also spearheaded the research and scripting of the show. She’ll be next seen reprising her iconic role of Tulsi Virani in Balaji Telefilms’ reboot of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, which will air on StarPlus and JioHotstar starting July 29.
