Women and Entrepreneurship

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Ekta Kapoor believed that her initial failures contributed a lot to her success at a later stage. As a novice, she made too many presumptions about the tastes of her audiences. But after her first few projects failed, she became more careful. She started watching television carefully to analyze the programs that were succeeding and those that were failing to understand the likes and dislikes of the viewers. She said that her study of TV programs helped her understand viewers' preferences. Ekta Kapoor was responsible for introducing a number of changes in Indian television. She was credited with introducing Indian viewers to daily soaps when weekly soaps were the order of the day. She felt that weekly serials could not hold the interest of the audience because of the time gap between episodes. When people missed an episode, they lost interest and stopped watching the serial altogether. Daily serials, however, not only captured and sustained the interest of the viewers, they were also more remunerative for the producer. Ekta Kapoor also introduced the genre of family-based serials in India. She understood that the average Indian was very family oriented and loved to be surrounded by members of their extended families. She capitalized on this characteristic by making serials that showed the life of large joint families.

People welcomed this theme as they were fed up with stories about extramarital affairs. They wanted feel-good serials with which they could identify, and Ekta Kapoor gave them what they wanted. Most of BTL's serials featured regularly in the top ten programs and, almost without exception, enjoyed high viewership ratings. Ekta Kapoor managed to change the concept of prime time television when she made 10:30 pm a prime time slot. When she chose 10:30 as the slot for KSBKBT, Ekta Kapoor did not expect the serial to become so popular. Till then, prime time on television was between 8:00 and 9:30 pm. After that, people had their dinners and went to bed. But after KSBKBT became popular, people changed their television viewing habits and 10:30 pm became a high viewership slot. Since Ekta Kapoor was the creative head of BTL, most of the successes of the company could be traced back to her. She was a hands-on manager, closely involved with all aspects of the serials- from the concept, to the script, the actors and the sets. She believed she had a knack for choosing the right faces for the right parts. Since she felt she understood audience preferences, she maintained full control over the development of serials. She paid a lot of attention to detail and monitored all aspects of BTL's serials for the first few episodes. After she was convinced that her creative team could manage on its own, she eased off. However, she still kept track of the ratings and responses. If there was a crisis, like a fall in ratings, she stepped in again. Ekta was constantly on the look out for new ideas for serials and claimed to source most of her stories from real life situations or people. She sourced the concept of KSBKBT from a short story she read in a magazine.

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3] Doordarshan is India's national television network.
4] The Financial Express June 18,2001
5] Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India.

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