In a candid chat with Ekta Kapoor, Divya Kaushik finds out what makes her choose scripts with bold content and how she established her brand in Bollywood with cutting-edge marketing initiatives
She is intelligent, smart and knows her way out. Precisely, this is what comes to mind when you meet Ekta Kapoor. She comes across as a person who most of the times speaks her mind without measuring words. From why she chooses to produce films with bold scripts to what she thinks about the portrayal of women in TV and cinema, she is clear about her convictions. Ekta was recently here to promote her forthcoming film Ragini MMS 2, featuring Sunny leone.
Be it The Dirty Picture, Kya Super Kool Hain Hum and now this one, she has never been apprehensive about investing in bold scripts that sometimes come with lots of sexual content, like Ragini MMS 2. The reasons she tells us is, “Television restraints you as you are going into people’s houses, and if you are going into somebody’s houses you need to respect their thought processes. Also, TV is a populist medium. It limits you but films give you lot of scope to exploit. Cinema should open up various points of views. It has to be polarised. You have to hate or love it. There has to be all kind of films coming out so that all kind of people get entertained. It’s a guilt-free pleasure. People used to ask me why on my TV shows there’s so much gossip. I would say that if I won’t engage you there you would gossip about your neighbours. Same is the case with films. People come to theatre for three hours to forget everything, you see glamorous men, hot women, good locations and you go home and feel happy. Any kind of cinema can give you gratification. If I am a producer, I should be able to provide a lootera and a Ragini MMS at the same time otherwise I am limiting myself.”
About the sexual content in films, she added, “I have no problem with anything which has sexual content. I really believe that a country has to be OK with sex otherwise there will be more sexual crime. We have not been able to distinguish between sexual crime and sex so what happens is that we have a problem with sex while we should be having a problem with sexual crime. We have a problem with a girl who wears a short skirt but we should have a problem with the man who misbehaves with her. What’s a problem in looking good or showing a cleavageIJ It’s all in the mind, it’s a way a person thinks about it. I don’t have a problem in showing a film with lot of sexual content. I don’t have a problem in doing bold films and conservative serials, doing a family drama or lootera, all of these are normal scripts for me and I am out there to produce every kind of film.”
A shift from TV to films was gradual. She never plans anything. “I have liked things that have always happened suddenly. My shift to films was a need then, as I had a small bump in my TV career, so I had to find ways to keep my company going.” For a TV producer, trying to get foothold in Bollywood and establish a brand among many other giants, seem like a challenge. But challenges are opportunities for Ekta. Criticisms hardly bother her. “My father always tells me that when an elephant walks, dogs bark and it doesn’t make any impact on an elephant. The day you start bothering about people, that’s when the real fall happens. I always look at others work and think he did so well, why can’t I do itIJ I should work harder and look for that talent inside me. I am always competitive and thinking that I am not doing the kind of work that I want to do. If I start thinking about what the world thinks of my work, I will be committing suicide,” she said.
From starting an entire TV horror series to promoteEk Thi Dayan to other smart initiatives, Ekta is known to introduce out-of-the-box marketing ideas. She said, “I don’t have the cutting edge and that is why I had to do this. I don’t have three khans or Ranbir Kapoor in my film. I wish it was that easy to get them but you don’t have big stars at the start off. I can’t make my brand a stars’ thing. What Bhansali did last with Ranveer Singh was amazing. He took well-known stars but he made the film bigger than them. What we have to do as a brand is that you take smaller films, spend more time in initiatives and marketing it, so that our brand gets established and is known for the films we do.”
From Sakshi Tanwar to Shweta Tiwari and now it’s Sunny leone, Ekta has helped actors rise in their careers. “I have always given chance to people as per my instinct. I have got that since childhood. That instinct has got sharper with a lot of experience. When you write a script for TV, you automatically start seeing the face, so it is not difficult to find the person then. Also, as a kid, I was a couch potato. I used to eat and sleep the whole day. I used to see TV and eventually I made it my profession. lot of people ask me how did I get into TV. I say because full day I would lie down on my bed, eat ice cream and watch it...that was the only thing I thought I could do,” she ended.