‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi didn't get a single hoarding, all the marketing was directed towards KBC': Sameer Nair
'At the time, when we were building our programming at Star, we were looking for a good, proper drama. Funnily enough, a year prior, none of the big producers in Mumbai wanted to work with us because they thought the show would flop because of the ratings our channel was getting at that time,' Sameer Now, then the head of programming at StarPlus, tells SCREEN in an exclusive interview.
'There are examples of people who've pitched the show to us, got them greenlight, and then went on to do the show with Zee. It happened with me twice, quite sad,' he adds. Right when they were prepping to launch KBC as their primetime special, Ekta visited Nair's office with her father and yesteryear actor Jeetendra.
'I told her, 'You could've called me on your own. Why did you bring dad?' That's when she told me she wanted to do a show with us,' recalls Nair. 'Ekta was really famous for her comedy, which was Hum Paanch (1995, Zee TV). So wherever she went, people always told her to do a comedy. But she wanted to do drama. She'd already done a successful Tamil show, so she wanted to do another one in Hindi,' says Nair.
After Nair greenlit the show, he got all the episodes in just a couple of months around June, a month before they were planning to launch KBC. 'When the episodes came to me, I just said, 'Let's put them on air.' No changes, no feedback, nothing. Because a lot of us at Star at that time were quite intelligent, so it'd be quite unnecessary. You know what channel or platform feedback can be like. So I thought it's best we avoid the feedback,' adds Nair.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi benefitted from the juggernaut success of its predecessor, KBC. Actor Smriti Irani, who played Tulsi Virani on the show, recently revealed Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi was a 'polite rejection' as it was 'positioned to fail' at a slot like 10:30 pm, when 'India goes to sleep.' Nair does admit 'all the marketing was directed towards KBC.'
'In fact, Kyunki never got a hoarding, and has never gotten a hoarding this entire history. Maybe, now that they do Kyunki 2, they'll put a hoarding. Because we never needed to. All the audience came in for KBC and stayed back to watch Kyunki,' reasons Nair, adding that the success of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi paved the way for many of these 'K-dramas' decades before the Korean dramas broke out.
'Which is why we quickly bought Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii in three months. So it got taped: 9-10 pm: KBC; 10-10:30 pm: Kahaani; and Kyunki at 10:30 pm,' says Nair. A host of these daily soaps, yes all starting with the letter 'K,' and spearheaded by Ekta's Balaji Telefilms, premiered soon after, including Kasautii Zindagii Kay (2001) and Kahiin To Hoga (2003). 'All of them worked. It was also the right time. By doing dailies in primetime, if you like a show on Monday, you'd also like it on Tuesday. That really worked out. Before that, all the shows were weekly on Star, Sony, and Zee,' says Nair.
Now, JioHotstar is all set to bring back Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 17 years after it last aired on StarPlus in 2008. Nair, who's now the Chief Executive Officer of Applause Entertainment, believes the medium doesn't matter, it's the story that'll take the show forward. 'I don't know if it's got so much to do with streaming or TV. It's really got to do with the story,' he says.
'Even the first time around, we told a very powerful story that grew overtime, even the nature of it, the way that drama is done,' says Nair, adding, 'Kyunki is a very strong brand and it's coming back. There'll be a lot of interest and excitement around it, and then finally it'll depend on storytelling, which Ekta Kapoor is a master at.'
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