SERIAL DREAMER
BALAJI TELEFILMS | ESTABLISHED IN 1994
THE PLOT
The eldest child of Bollywood actor Jeetendra, Ekta Kapoor took her father’s financial help to start a company with mother Shobhaa in his garage. After a few initial failures, the Kapoors scored their first big hit in the family comedy Hum Paanch (Zee, 1995-97) starring Ashok Saraf, Priya Tendulkar, Vidya Balan. Soon began the K serials bandwagon with Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi enjoying such success that, on public demand, Balaji had to bring back a key character it had killed off. In February 2000, Balaji Telefilms became a public limited company.
Such has been Kapoor’s dominance that in 2001 she had 18 shows running on air simultaneously. The production house has played a pioneering role in the glamorisation of the TV industry as well as bringing the scale and scope of cinema
to television with the use of equipment such as jimmy jib, steadicam and later special effects.
ON THE ANVIL
Never having succeeded at grasping the imagination of the youth in the country, Ekta launched ALTBalaji in April 2017 in the expectation to woo a generation which likes to Netflix and chill, while simultaneously fulfilling her dream of having a channel of her own. The subscriber video-ondemand digital platform has limited web series with content that possibly wouldn’t pass muster on television. Recently Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries acquired a 25 per cent stake in the company, the proceeds of which will now be used to provide more programming on the streaming platform. Additionally, the partnership will give ALTBalaji direct access to the customers of Reliance Jio.