Ekta's crumbling empire - Article

Like the crumbling empire of Russia, Czarina Ekta Kapoor's empire is fragmenting into dust and there is little she can do. The lady who created her own rules and laid down her laws, is slowly falling from honour and position.

It's now official. The partnership of Popcorn and Balaji is facing stormy weathers. After giving a spade of flops like EMI, C Company, Mission Istanbul , their association seems to have soured.

Balaji, who has no dearth of finance joined hands with Popcorn to market and distribute their films that have been produced by them. But the latest buzz is that their deal is ending. The two companies, with mutual consent have decided to part ways. "Yes, it's true that they have ended their partnership. With a series of flop films, both Ekta Kapoor and Sunil Shetty decided that they do not want to continue working together. But the parting has been on an amicable note and they continue to be friends," says our source at Balaji... However, an employee of Popcorn confirms that all is hunky dory and steaming cups of chai are being shared almost everyday between the head honchos of the two companies.

Prior to this, her association with Sanjay Dutt's production company was abruptly called off. Though both tried to deflect the accusations, Ekta had to clarify more than once that Sanju Baba and she are still friends.

Ekta has been in troubled waters for sometime now. First it was her disastrous slew of flop films, and then her flagship shows Kasauti, Kahani and Kyunki were pulled off by Star Plus, which led to the feud with the channel. And now with 9x threatening to shut shop, Balaji's biggest and most expensive show Mahabharat seems to be in the lurch. The big question here is, whether Ekta Kapoor's big empire is crumbling down?

In this phase of her career nothing seems to be going right. Even her new show on Star Plus Tujh Sang Preet Lagai Sajna opened to poor TRP's. The final nail in the coffin is the TV strike that is said to have killed the interest of the audience in TV shows. Wonder how the Kapoor girl will take this blow of fate?