Though Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms has had a long-standing relationship with Star Plus, the two are apparently facing problems now.
A series of incidents indicate that the soap queen has been getting a raw deal from her favourite channel
MUMBAI: Though Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms has had a long-standing relationship with Star Plus (having produced shows including Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii), the two are apparently facing problems now.
Star is known to have signed a deal with Balaji for launching a few South Indian channels in the first quarter of this year. Due to an inordinate delay this doesn’t seem feasible now.
There also have been a whole lot of other problems. Incidentally, Ekta had pumped in a lot of money for her first telly awards — The Global Indian TV Honours. She wanted it to be telecast on Star. Sources reveal that they even had a few meetings in this regard. However, the channel supposedly backed out, as they already have one telly awards to telecast. An upset Ekta eventually gave it to another channel.
Also, Ekta has been planning to make the mega-mythological Mahabharat since more than a year for Star. However the channel reportedly roped in Bobby Bedi and Chandraprakash Dwivedi to make the same show. Ekta had no option but to now make it for another channel.
Further, Ekta’s show Kya Dill Mein Hai was supposed to be a daily soap on a new channel, but it was pulled off at the last minute. Reason? Ekta has an exclusive contract with Star, which states that she can’t produce a show on the parallel time slot for any rival channel. Thus she was apparently forced to air it as a weekend show.
Incidentally, Ekta has made a lot of non-fiction event shows (Diwali Dhamaka) for Star, but of late the channel is known to give this opportunity to other production houses.
A furious Ekta supposedly gave it back to the channel in the first week of February when all her primetime actors were supposed to perform for a Valentine’s Day special show titled Salaam-e-Ishq. At the 11th hour, Ekta stopped all her actors from performing, which left the channel in a soup. They had to resort to other actors to finish the shoot.
A well-placed source says, “One of the main reasons for the problem is that the top management of the channel has changed in the past years (honchos including Peter Mukerjea, Shailaja Kejriwal, Samir Nair have quit). Subsequently, the rapport which Balaji has shared with the channel has also changed.”
But the source adds, “ The channel is planning to sort out the differences very soon.” Ekta was not available for comment.
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