Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii


Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii is a Hindi-language Indian soap opera on Indian television which ran on Star Plus from October 16, 2000 to October 9, 2008. The soap opera was created by Ekta Kapoor and was produced by her production company Balaji Telefilms which starred Sakshi Tanwar and Kiran Karmarkar.
The show explored the worlds of Parvati and Om Agarwal, living in a Marwadi joint family where Parvati is an ideal daughter-in-law of Agarwal family and Om the ideal son. The show is the story of the sons of Vishwanath Agarwal and their children thereof. The show also had Ali Asgar who played the role of Kamal Agarwal, Anup Soni who played the role of Suyash Mehra, Shweta Kawatra/ Achint Kaur who played the role of Pallavi Agarwal as the major supporting cast.
Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii was dubbed in Sinhala language and broadcast on Sirasa TV.

Summary

Om and Parvati Agarwal are considered to be the Rama and Sita of the Agarwal family. The show is based mostly on their life and struggles in a joint family. The story, spread over three generations, focuses majorly on Parvati and her struggles as the ideal wife and daughter-in-law, mother and grandmother and depicts how sometimes one must stand against her loved ones to do what is morally right. The story ends on the day of Dussehra with the family celebrating and highlighting the triumph of good over evil.

Cast

The music of the series is composed by Priya Bhattacharya while the lyrics of the title track are written by B M Vyas.

Production

Development

Initially, Kahanii was offered to Zee TV. However, when they declined the offer, it was picked up by Star Plus.
Sakshi Tanwar was initially offered the role of a sister in law Parvati by Ekta Kapoor while playing the role of a sister in law in Karam Apnaa Apnaa which she rejected as she thought her role of a sister in law could not be the lead. Even when she was given narration of the story she rejected again as it required her to play the role of a mother to a teenager. Then, when Kapoor reduced the age of the characters in story by 10 years, Tanwar rejected again as she was not willing to shift from Delhi to Mumbai for her daily soap shooting considering her routine would become affected. After discussions with Kapoor she decided to shoot for 15 days in Mumbai in a month for it so that the other days she could stay in Delhi.
When the ratings of the series slightly declined, Kapoor decided and on 15 November 2006, the story took a generation leap of 18 years.

Filming

Kahaani was initially shot at sets of Balaji House in Andheri. Then, in January 2003 it was shifted to Sankraman Studio, studio number eight at Goregaon and later changed. In September 2007, due to the dipping viewership, considering the current set location unlucky and the previous set Sankraman lucky, Kapoor decided and shifted it back there. Some sequences of the series was also shot at foreign locations in Australia.

Crossover

On 19 June 2006, Kahaani had a crossover with Kkavyanjali. In 2007 and 2008, the series had a crossover with Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.

Reception

Critics

The series was critically acclaimed during its premiere for showcasing the actual joint family concept and the problems faced by the new generations in joint family. The way in which the storyline was adopted was widely appreciated.
When it ended, The telegraph stated both the positive and negative aspects of the show saying," A by and large credible storyline and identifiable characters. Unlike Tulsi, Parvati, played by Saakshi Tanwar, was human and vulnerable and that endeared her to viewers. Repetitive plot points and too many characters towards the end. The Agarwal family plunged from one crisis to another. The viewer plunged from boredom to frustration."

Ratings

This series which aired at a night slot of 10:00 pm is regarded as the second most highest rated soap after Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi which mostly dominanted the top positions in Hindi GEC for about seven years. These made StarPlus and Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms reach greater reach at that time.
Three weeks after its premiere the show was amongst top three shows on Indian Television the other two being Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kaun Banega Crorepati.
The series became one of the most watched shows during 2001 and 2002 with an average TRP of 10+ TVR. In week 24 2002, it was the second watched Hindi GEC with 10.41 TVR and the following week it became the most watched Hindi GEC with 9.03 TVR pushing Kyunki to second position.
In September 2003, the series took a leap of 18 years in the storyline while the ratings spiked around 10+TVR before which it around 9 TVR before leap.
In the Year 2002 and 2003, the series toppled Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi to become the top show on Indian Television.
In the Year 2004, after the first generational leap of 20 years the TRP of the show shoot as high as 18+ that was a feat achieved by none other show before except Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi ! In the same year during the rape hearing scene the TRPs of the show shoot the highest making it top show continuously for several weeks on the ratings charts.
On 15 November 2006, the series took another generational leap of 18 years when the ratings of the series started to decrease. The protagonist Parvati Aggrawal returned from dead as Janki Devi to take the revenge from Trisha who damaged her family and made the elders of her family - the servants! The series was applauded for enacting such a storyline which had the connect with 21st century! One of the episodes aired soon after it garnered 15.34 TVR and its last highest rating before was 12.55 TVR on January 2006. The firett episode on 15 November 2006 after the leap had more than 12 million viewership.
Also Sakshi Tanwar was applauded for her portrayal as Janki Devi, a break for her and audience who saw her enacting Parvati Aggrawal for continuous 6 years! Even Mita Vashisht was applauded for her portrayal as antagonist Trisha. The ratings of the series went high when Sakshi Tanwar returned as Janki Devi.
During early 2008, it ranged between 4 and 5 TVR maintaining its top position. However soon, it dipped and ranged between 2 and 2.5 TVR losing its top spot. On week ending 4 October 2008, it garnered 2.41 TVR occupying ninenth position. The decreasing ratings since of the series made it to go off air on 9 October 2008.
Once, when the TVR had a slight drop of 1 TVR, despite being a top show, Kapoor became angry such that she even was in a temper to shut the show. However, the cast and crew reshoot the upcoming sequences for 16 hours such that Kapoor was satisfied.
The series went off air on 9 October 2008 after completing 8 successful years, where in the last episode, the protagonist Sakshi Tanwar was seen passing on the baton to Puja Banerjee.

Impact

Protests evoked by Jagori, a women group, in May 2002 for depiction of the raping a blind girl Khushi where the rapist justifies the crime as punishment for not respecting him, in the episode aired on 21 May 2002.
In February 2003, The Times of India reported that the people started recreating the grand sets of the series in their homes at Kolkata.
In June 2008, a sequence was in making, reported to be inspired from the ongoing 2008 Noida double murder case then, where the lead character Parvati's granddaughter Tanu played by Akshita Kapoor and her boyfriend Andy were to be murdered. The victim's mother Nupur Talwar requested the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to stop Balaji Telefilms from airing the sequence, saying that the production house was trying to earn TRPs by exploiting a tragedy. However, the production house refused to change the script stating the sequence not being inspired from that case while there were some similarities reported between both. The similarities between those reported by Mumbai Mirror were: "The body of Tanu's boyfriend is found inside the house just as the body of the servant was found on the terrace, in Aarushi's case. In the show as in reality, Tanu's ashes will be immersed in Haridwar just like Aarushi's. Also, the drama will focus on a family member's involvement in the murder. Like Aarushi's mother, Parvati will be shown giving interviews to the media. The show has also incorporated the element of the MMS from Aarushi's case and the CBI probe into the case."
When Balaji Telefilms refused to drop the track, NCPCR's member Sandhya Bajaj after Talwar's complaint, in a letter to Information & broadcasting secretary Asha Swarup, said, "Balaji Telefilms’ move would glorify the concept of “honour killings”. They should not be allowed to make a serial on Aarushi murder case till the investigations are over. Otherwise, it will amount to influencing the investigation and the final outcome of the case," Following the complaint and I&B ministry meeting with Star TV, they ordered Star to withhold the episode telecast. Then, Star instructed Balaji Telefilms as per I&B's letter to alter the track accordingly. Soon, the track was altered regarding which Creative head, Nivedita Basu stated, "Well, Andy will not die; only Tanu will be bumped off. So there is no double murder like that of Aarushi and Hemraj. Moreover, we also removed the word 'honour killing' from the episode. Now the track will be of a 'who-dun-it', where every character in the Agarwal family will be a suspect."

Awards