When director Milan Luthria met Ekta Kapoor, it was towards the end of the making of their film Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai in 2010. His interaction until then had been with her executives, who were working on propping up Balaji Films' fortunes. Kapoor was staring at the back of several unflattering releases at the time. Luthria had not been enjoying enviable success either. "She was not easy to deal with because it was a tempestuous point in her life. Her films like EMI, Mission Istanbul and others had fared poorly, so she had a point to prove," recalls the director. "We clashed pretty hard on a few issues."
That year would go on to mark 37-year-old Kapoor's arrival as a strong film producer. Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and Dibakar Banerjee's LSD: Love, Sex aur Dhokha, released months earlier, got the approval of critics and did reasonably well financially. "Since then, we've evolved and are friends now," says Luthria. In 2011, he directed Balaji Motion Pictures' crown jewel The Dirty Picture, which conquered the box office and won accolades as well as multiple awards.
Even now, however, Kapoor is more involved in her TV shows and steps in only occasionally for films. The day-to-day affairs of the motion pictures division are handled by its CEO, Tanuj Garg. Kapoor weighs in at key points - the selection of the idea, the cast, hearing the script after it is completed and seeing the finished product.
Kapoor is known to be a difficult boss. She attributed her infamous anger to stress and the pressures of working in television. Kapoor was only 19 when she debuted as a TV producer. Hum Paanch, a comedy about a middle-class father of five daughters with a penchant for trouble, became one of Zee TV's most popular shows though Kapoor's career in television is largely identified with Balaji's onslaught of joint-family dramas, which started in 2000. By age 25, she had built something of an empire.
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Despite being born into a star family - her father is the yesteryears actor Jeetendra and mother Shobha Kapoor is Ramesh Sippy's sister - Kapoor's TV achievements were not laid out on a platter, says Prashant Bhatt, head of fiction at TV channel Colors. Bhatt was previously an actor and creative director with Balaji. "Ekta has learned everything on the job. She was on the ground and getting her hands dirty." The cut-throat, day-to-day approach in TV also meant their show tapes would often reach channel stations minutes before the broadcast, he admits. "Storylines had to be altered overnight. She could pre-empt what viewers wanted, and, a lot of the time, it paid off."
In fits of rage, she is prone to flinging cellphones and is said to have once thrown an assistant director's laptop out of the window. Kapoor admitted to liking the fear she commands because it can improve the quality of her team's work. But it is not without pitfalls, of course. "Because of my temper, I have got into fights and missed some good people. I have tried to make amends but destiny follows its course and sometimes the moment is gone forever," she once said in an interview. The temper, however, may not be entirely under control. In December, she was accused of humiliating a senior citizen at the bank after he asked her to step aside.
Almost everyone in television today, even at Colors and other companies, has worked with Balaji once, Bhatt says. Wannabe actors would hound Kapoor on the streets to land an audition. While researching her book Death in Mumbai, journalist Meenal Baghel met Kapoor to understand the aspirational nature of the TV industry. "There are only two things we look for in our lead actors: the man should have attitude, and the woman should look innocent. Between you and me, virginal," Baghel quotes. Actor Aman Verma said in an interview, "If Ekta gives you a role, you should quietly take it and do your job. She makes sure you get what you want and you must simply try and deliver your best in return."
She has helped shape younger brother Tusshar Kapoor's career too. Tusshar, who mostly features in ensemble casts, is a regular in Kapoor's productions. He has performed in eight of her 16 films. Kapoor is spiritual and consults celebrity tarot reader Sunita Menon and an astrologer before every major decision. Kapoor described herself as "bohemian in thought and conservative in action" but has since warmed up to pushing the envelope.
She decided to take on edgy, youth-oriented films through Alt Entertainment, an arm of Balaji Motion Pictures. Her TV show titles were introduced to alphabets other than K. The 'bold' content in Kapoor's recent films has trickled down to the TV soaps to some extent. A 15-minute steamy sequence featuring the lead pair on Bade Acche Lagte Hai, which claims a primetime slot on the Sony channel, created a stir last year.
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The feisty businesswoman is said to be grooming herself to deal with several temperaments. "She is today's producer. Producers now realise that they can't take all the cream home. They understand the value of successful actors and directors and maintaining relationships. The vision is long term now," notes Luthria. New age film makers and writers including Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap are working with her.
Ek Thi Daayan hit theatres in April, performing moderately well. The latest release is Shootout at Wadala, while Lootera and Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai 2 will follow suit.
"It's her passion for the job that drives her," observes Ashvini Yardi of Grazing Goat Pictures, previously programming head at Colors and Zee TV. "No matter how many years a show might run, she is just as excited about it in later years as she is in the first. You can call her up anytime and she is aware of the phase in which the show is."
According to Yardi, Kapoor is into the creative side but has big strengths in marketing. To promote Ek Thi Daayan, Kapoor floated a short supernatural TV series Ek Thi Nayika, featuring top actresses from her various daily soaps. She also took the film's actors to Allahabad for a holy dip during the Mahakumbh. Her distribution risks have worked out too. The Dirty Picture with a distinctly south Indian flavour was expected to thrive in the region. So it was pushed more in the north and east of India, where it was received surprisingly well.
The brasstacks of a producer are ambition, marketing and not giving up the product, says Luthria. "In that respect, she was ready to hold my hand right till the very end. That's a good quality." For Kapoor, success came at an early age and maturity may now be setting in.
