Case study of Ekta Kapoor

Ekta Kapoor was said to be the face and brain of Balaji Telefilms Limited (BTL), and was almost
solely responsible for the phenomenal success of most of BTL's serials. According to Ekta, her
childhood was "materially easy but emotionally difficult." As a child she was extremely obese
and suffered from low self-esteem.
She was a poor student and was happy to get by with the minimum pass marks. Even as a child
she was an avid television watcher and spent most of her free time glued to the TV. She felt
guilty about letting her parents down, but was unable to do anything about it.
The turning point in Ekta Kapoor's life came in the early 1990s when a non resident Indian,
Ketan Somayya, approached her father and requested him to make some software for the channel
he wanted to start. Ekta's father asked her to take up the responsibility of making the software.
Consequently, Ekta Kapoor made six pilots, of about three episodes each, at a cost of about Rs
0.5 million. The proposed channel, however, did not fare well and had to be sold to Zee TV. Not
wanting to waste her efforts, Ekta Kapoor started looking for other buyers for her pilots.
She was not successful in finding buyers for the first pilots, but her father came to her rescue and
gave her more money to make more pilots. BTL was set up in 1994 by her father. Mano Ya Na
Mano, (Believe It or Not) BTL's first serial was telecast in 1995. This was followed by Dhun
Dhamaka (Musical Explosion), a music based show aired on Doordarshan, which was
moderately successful. The first major success came with Hum Paanch (We Five), a comic
sitcom about 5 girls and their harassed parents, which ran for 5 years on Zee TV. BTL came out
with an initial public offer (IPO) in October 2000 to set up an integrated studio in Mumbai and to
buy advanced equipment. A day prior to its listing on BSE, BTL entered into negotiations with
Nine Network Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nine Broadcasting
India Pvt. Ltd.) for a merger in the ratio of 65:200 through an all-share deal.
The merger was later called off. In its first year as a public company, Balaji showed a net profit
of Rs 646 million on net sales of Rs.3.45 billion for the nine month period ending in December
2000. The initial years in the business were not very easy for Ekta Kapoor. There were times
when she used to have 5 or 6 pilots ready but none of them would get approval from the
channels. People did not take her seriously. Experienced writers would try to force her to accept
sub-standard scripts as they thought she was the "brainless daughter of a moneyed father." She

was able to overcome these barriers through sheer grit and determination. She worked
relentlessly, even foregoing holidays, to make a mark for herself. Her time was completely
occupied with thinking out stories, finalizing scripts, deciding on sets, costumes, casting, etc.
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 sourced the concept of KSBKBT from a short story she read in a magazine. BTL productions
were lavishly presented and slickly marketed. Most its new serials could easily sail through on
the basis of its past successes, but Ekta Kapoor ensured that nothing was left to chance. She
advertised constantly to create visibility. In fact, she even made some of the characters in her
serials praise other serials. For instance, some of the characters in the serials are shown discussing
her other serials or finishing housework quickly to catch up with them. Her unique style of
naming the serials (all names started with K and all the titles were structured in a strange manner)
also drew the attention of viewers. She was once advised by an astrologer that the letter 'K' would
be lucky for her.
As a result, she started naming all her serials with K. According to Ekta, ninety percent of her
serials beginning with that letter have been successful, so she does not see the need to change the
practice. On the human resources front, Ekta Kapoor seemed to be something of an autocrat. She
yelled at her subordinates as she believed that if she did not shout, things would not get done.
She was also completely indifferent to star status and expected all the actors in her serials to toe
her line.

In addition, the actors were also employed on a contractual basis which gave the producer more
control over them. This contract system also helped BTL reduce costs. In 2001, Kapoor was
selected by the Confederation of Indian Industries, (CII) to head the committee on entertainment.
She also received a number of awards in the early 21 st century. Some of the awards are: One of
"Asia's 50 most Powerful Communicators," from Asia week magazine in 2001; Ernst and Young
Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001; "Corporate Excellence" from Bharat Petroleum in 2002; and
"Rajiv Gandhi Award" in 2002. The entrepreneurial style of Ekta Kapoor may smack of
authoritarianism, but analysts felt her refusal to compromise on quality and her attention to detail
contributed greatly to her success. Her perfectionism seemed to have helped make BTL one of
the most powerful television software companies of the 2000s.

Questions :
1. What is the turning point in the career of Ekta Kapoor ?
2. What are the major findings of this case study?
3. What are the lessons that an women entrepreneurs can get
from this story ?
4. What are the key themes of success in her career?
5. All the factors are not controlled by academic knowledge
but by creativity. Comment this statement on the basis of
above case study .