Bill Gates To Appear on Kyunki?! - Page 4

Originally posted by: EkPaheli

Just saw this and it cracked me up

Kuch bhi.. Plastic surgery Anurag ki hui thi, Mihir ki to bas memory gayi thi. Yeh Bill Gates ko to kuch aata hi nahin hai

Originally posted by: EkPaheli

They even had Maharashtrians who are wife-beating good for nothing drunkards and women who work as maids. Don’t forget that.

So far I think they have not mocked Bengalis and that’s probably because RG herself is one and wouldn’t like it but all the other communities are fair and open game to her.

Initially I thought RG is Rahul Gandhi But this RuGa and not RaGa Smriti ko koi bhi RG pasand nahin hai

Originally posted by: missFiesty_69

Ekta had the opportunity to break the mold, yet she chose to repeat the same stereotypical representation once again. At least if it had been remotely true, it wouldn’t have been so exasperating/ tiresome to watch.

@b: This is the issue I have with her too. One husband never treated her right, ill-treated and insulted her, and she just repeated the same callousness with the person who literally and figuratively worshipped the ground she walked on. She never gave him the importance he deserved in her life. In the end, all the viewers felt she rightly deserved the Shahs, even though that sounds harsh (and no one deserves to go through that).

Bollywood and TV industry in India, at least as far as the Hindi TV industry goes, are not willing to reinvent themselves and hence their condition is stagnant.

Notice how nowadays we don’t have blockbuster movies truly or iconic shows. There are no movie or TV superstars being churned out in the past couple of years despite new faces joining both TV and movies every year. There is a huge difference in the amount of reach and especially budget, production values and star power in both the mediums and yet they suffer from the same fate - wonder why that is? Because they’re not willing to reinvent themselves.

Ekta’s shows are called regressive now but back when she started making them, don’t forget that this was fresh. Yes, family dramas aired before but they didn’t exclusively focus on women as protagonists in a joint family setup which emphasised how much they play a role in making or breaking a family. The shows catered to the largest audience base out there that felt seen and noticed for the first time - homemakers. They felt their issues were addressed although they were not dealing with the likes of a man-eater in the form of Komolika taking away their love interests or having dead husbands come back to life, but they still related to the likes of Tulsi, Parvati and Prerna. Heck, a Gopi Vahu became a household name even when she was dumber than a bag of rocks, because something about these shows clicked.

Nothing clicks now. Not in the way it did.

In the era of smartphones where people are at a liberty to watch anything from all over the world, our industries refuse to adapt themselves in terms of content, storytelling and writing but would gladly go ahead and make use of the latest fashion trends, makeup styles etc. in short the superficial things. They will upgrade their cameras and make their sets look grander and more modern aesthetically but not care about the fact that the audience has also changed in terms of mindset and therefore their content should reflect that.

No one enjoys stereotypes onscreen now, in fact, some find it downright offensive if not completely ludicrous.

If you show a family, irrespective of their ethnic origin, based in a Metropolitan city like Mumbai then you can’t show for example that they don’t go out for dinners every now and then or don’t hop to a mall when they really wanna splurge and buy branded goods. Or that they will be eating only the cuisine native to their roots, for example, Viranis will not just eat the staple thepla, chundo, undhiyo, dhokla every day. They will indulge in Punjabi cuisine, will have idlis, dosas, wadas, even misals and wada pavs every now and then even back in the day of the original season. Heck a restaurant is famous from Chembur iirc for being the go to for the Ambanis every Sunday for their regular breakfast of idlis, dosas and wadas! Practically the richest family in the country!

Now with more global cuisine so readily available it shouldn’t be shocking to see the Viranis having their favourite restaurants whenever they’re in the mood for some Thai, Chinese and Korean etc. foods that they do enjoy and like but are obviously not gonna try to cook at home if possible. Given that they’re rich it wouldn’t even be that big a deal to show that.

But why would they care for something that the audience is literally telling them when they refuse to leave their comfort zone and want to stick with the age old formulas?

Originally posted by: EkPaheli

Bollywood and TV industry in India, at least as far as the Hindi TV industry goes, are not willing to reinvent themselves and hence their condition is stagnant.

Notice how nowadays we don’t have blockbuster movies truly or iconic shows. There are no movie or TV superstars being churned out in the past couple of years despite new faces joining both TV and movies every year. There is a huge difference in the amount of reach and especially budget, production values and star power in both the mediums and yet they suffer from the same fate - wonder why that is? Because they’re not willing to reinvent themselves.

Ekta’s shows are called regressive now but back when she started making them, don’t forget that this was fresh. Yes, family dramas aired before but they didn’t exclusively focus on women as protagonists in a joint family setup which emphasised how much they play a role in making or breaking a family. The shows catered to the largest audience base out there that felt seen and noticed for the first time - homemakers. They felt their issues were addressed although they were not dealing with the likes of a man-eater in the form of Komolika taking away their love interests or having dead husbands come back to life, but they still related to the likes of Tulsi, Parvati and Prerna. Heck, a Gopi Vahu became a household name even when she was dumber than a bag of rocks, because something about these shows clicked.

Nothing clicks now. Not in the way it did.

In the era of smartphones where people are at a liberty to watch anything from all over the world, our industries refuse to adapt themselves in terms of content, storytelling and writing but would gladly go ahead and make use of the latest fashion trends, makeup styles etc. in short the superficial things. They will upgrade their cameras and make their sets look grander and more modern aesthetically but not care about the fact that the audience has also changed in terms of mindset and therefore their content should reflect that.

No one enjoys stereotypes onscreen now, in fact, some find it downright offensive if not completely ludicrous.

If you show a family, irrespective of their ethnic origin, based in a Metropolitan city like Mumbai then you can’t show for example that they don’t go out for dinners every now and then or don’t hop to a mall when they really wanna splurge and buy branded goods. Or that they will not be eating only the cuisine native to their roots, for example, Viranis will not just eat the staple thepla, chundo, undhiyo, dhokla every day. They will indulge in Punjabi cuisine, will have idlis, dosas, wadas, even misals and wada pavs every now and then even back in the day of the original season. Heck a restaurant is famous from Chembur iirc for being the go to for the Ambanis every Sunday for their regular breakfast of idlis, dosas and wadas! Practically the richest family in the country!

Now with more global cuisine so readily available it shouldn’t be shocking to see the Viranis having their favourite restaurants whenever they’re in the mood for some Thai, Chinese and Korean etc. foods that they do enjoy and like but are obviously not gonna try to cook at home if possible. Given that they’re rich it wouldn’t even be that big a deal to show that.

But why would they care for something that the audience is literally telling them when they refuse to leave their comfort zone and want to stick with the age old formulas?

If we talk about Sarabhai into 2005 they did had a diverse pov where they included Gujarati cusine and also gave terms like dairy free,veganism and also explored different cusines.

Fashion sense was very upbeat and they actually where on track with Y2K era.Also Monisha who was bahu of Sarabhai wore jeans and western fits.

Ekta could have done the same with viranis and could have given them the metropolitan habits and lifestyle.But ig she wanted to keep it traditional.

Like in 2025 women are wearing jeans now but I have not seen any Sanskari bahu wearing jeans or even one western outfit for even a day.Western clothing is only the norm for vamps.If you see Pari or mitali who are the vamps are wearing western fits but Vrinda is the goody two shoes wearing salwar suit.See I know she's from a poor family but I feel even lower middle class people are wearing western fits.I know clothes don't matter character does but why are we pushing this stereotype more.Cant we see a change?

I watched only murders in building and I was pleasantly impressed by its concept and wished that if ITV can explore a different storytelling genre.Also abbot elementary was a good watch which was actually like a mockumentary in a school background.

Ekta can do a different thing in ITV but I feel audience doesn't want to change

Indian OTT is giving new stories but I feel channels don't want to reinvent as they are scared of audience rejecting it.Look at panchayat or gullak.They are successful in ott game

SP did gave good shows back like everest,airlines,gulmohar grand but I feel they just stopped.

Itv will become fully irrelevant if makers don't change.Mainly audience should change

Originally posted by: EkPaheli

Bollywood and TV industry in India, at least as far as the Hindi TV industry goes, are not willing to reinvent themselves and hence their condition is stagnant.

Notice how nowadays we don’t have blockbuster movies truly or iconic shows. There are no movie or TV superstars being churned out in the past couple of years despite new faces joining both TV and movies every year. There is a huge difference in the amount of reach and especially budget, production values and star power in both the mediums and yet they suffer from the same fate - wonder why that is? Because they’re not willing to reinvent themselves.

Ekta’s shows are called regressive now but back when she started making them, don’t forget that this was fresh. Yes, family dramas aired before but they didn’t exclusively focus on women as protagonists in a joint family setup which emphasised how much they play a role in making or breaking a family. The shows catered to the largest audience base out there that felt seen and noticed for the first time - homemakers. They felt their issues were addressed although they were not dealing with the likes of a man-eater in the form of Komolika taking away their love interests or having dead husbands come back to life, but they still related to the likes of Tulsi, Parvati and Prerna. Heck, a Gopi Vahu became a household name even when she was dumber than a bag of rocks, because something about these shows clicked.

Nothing clicks now. Not in the way it did.

In the era of smartphones where people are at a liberty to watch anything from all over the world, our industries refuse to adapt themselves in terms of content, storytelling and writing but would gladly go ahead and make use of the latest fashion trends, makeup styles etc. in short the superficial things. They will upgrade their cameras and make their sets look grander and more modern aesthetically but not care about the fact that the audience has also changed in terms of mindset and therefore their content should reflect that.

No one enjoys stereotypes onscreen now, in fact, some find it downright offensive if not completely ludicrous.

If you show a family, irrespective of their ethnic origin, based in a Metropolitan city like Mumbai then you can’t show for example that they don’t go out for dinners every now and then or don’t hop to a mall when they really wanna splurge and buy branded goods. Or that they will not be eating only the cuisine native to their roots, for example, Viranis will not just eat the staple thepla, chundo, undhiyo, dhokla every day. They will indulge in Punjabi cuisine, will have idlis, dosas, wadas, even misals and wada pavs every now and then even back in the day of the original season. Heck a restaurant is famous from Chembur iirc for being the go to for the Ambanis every Sunday for their regular breakfast of idlis, dosas and wadas! Practically the richest family in the country!

Now with more global cuisine so readily available it shouldn’t be shocking to see the Viranis having their favourite restaurants whenever they’re in the mood for some Thai, Chinese and Korean etc. foods that they do enjoy and like but are obviously not gonna try to cook at home if possible. Given that they’re rich it wouldn’t even be that big a deal to show that.

But why would they care for something that the audience is literally telling them when they refuse to leave their comfort zone and want to stick with the age old formulas?

I honestly couldn’t agree more — the lack of fresh stories and ideas is a big reason why Bollywood and Hindi TV no longer have the same cultural impact they once did. What’s interesting is that while technology and access have evolved, the mindset within the industry hasn’t.

Audiences today aren’t limited anymore — they’re watching Korean dramas, Western shows, and regional Indian content that’s often much more creative and grounded. So when Hindi shows or films keep repeating the same formulas—unrealistic families, over-the-top villains, weak writing—it just feels outdated and, frankly, boring. It’s not that people don’t enjoy emotional or dramatic stories anymore; they just want those emotions to feel real and come from good writing. Angst ke naam pe kuch bhi dikhate hain aaj kal!

I agree, Ekta’s early shows were groundbreaking for their time. They connected with people, especially women, because they showed their emotions and struggles, even if the stories were exaggerated. But that audience has changed now. Today’s viewers—whether homemakers, working professionals, or young people—have been exposed to so many different kinds of stories. They want characters and situations that they can relate with, and feels real, not just being over the top or outdated.

The irony is that India has incredible storytelling talent. You see it shining on OTT platforms, in regional cinema, and independent projects. The Hindi industry just lacks the courage to try new ideas. Producers still think playing it safe is good business, but it’s actually what’s killing the spark.

Reinventing doesn’t mean losing the “masala” that makes itv special — it just means updating how stories are told so they actually connect with today’s audience. Until the industry realises viewers have moved on, both emotionally and culturally, things will continue to stay the same.

In my opinion, the audience also needs to stop watching this kind of nonsense. Only then will producers be forced to step up and think about what people actually want to see on their screens.

It’s a vicious cycle — the audience keeps waiting for producers to bring good content but rarely supports it enough when it does come, while producers keep feeding us the same old nonsense and playing it safe.

P.S marvelling over how articulately you have said it all. ;)

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/kyunki-saas-bhi-kabhi-bahu-thi-2/5377392/ok-im-finally-watching-the-bill-gates-episode

Originally posted by: EkPaheli

Bollywood and TV industry in India, at least as far as the Hindi TV industry goes, are not willing to reinvent themselves and hence their condition is stagnant.

Notice how nowadays we don’t have blockbuster movies truly or iconic shows. There are no movie or TV superstars being churned out in the past couple of years despite new faces joining both TV and movies every year. There is a huge difference in the amount of reach and especially budget, production values and star power in both the mediums and yet they suffer from the same fate - wonder why that is? Because they’re not willing to reinvent themselves.

Ekta’s shows are called regressive now but back when she started making them, don’t forget that this was fresh. Yes, family dramas aired before but they didn’t exclusively focus on women as protagonists in a joint family setup which emphasised how much they play a role in making or breaking a family. The shows catered to the largest audience base out there that felt seen and noticed for the first time - homemakers. They felt their issues were addressed although they were not dealing with the likes of a man-eater in the form of Komolika taking away their love interests or having dead husbands come back to life, but they still related to the likes of Tulsi, Parvati and Prerna. Heck, a Gopi Vahu became a household name even when she was dumber than a bag of rocks, because something about these shows clicked.

Nothing clicks now. Not in the way it did.

In the era of smartphones where people are at a liberty to watch anything from all over the world, our industries refuse to adapt themselves in terms of content, storytelling and writing but would gladly go ahead and make use of the latest fashion trends, makeup styles etc. in short the superficial things. They will upgrade their cameras and make their sets look grander and more modern aesthetically but not care about the fact that the audience has also changed in terms of mindset and therefore their content should reflect that.

No one enjoys stereotypes onscreen now, in fact, some find it downright offensive if not completely ludicrous.

If you show a family, irrespective of their ethnic origin, based in a Metropolitan city like Mumbai then you can’t show for example that they don’t go out for dinners every now and then or don’t hop to a mall when they really wanna splurge and buy branded goods. Or that they will not be eating only the cuisine native to their roots, for example, Viranis will not just eat the staple thepla, chundo, undhiyo, dhokla every day. They will indulge in Punjabi cuisine, will have idlis, dosas, wadas, even misals and wada pavs every now and then even back in the day of the original season. Heck a restaurant is famous from Chembur iirc for being the go to for the Ambanis every Sunday for their regular breakfast of idlis, dosas and wadas! Practically the richest family in the country!

Now with more global cuisine so readily available it shouldn’t be shocking to see the Viranis having their favourite restaurants whenever they’re in the mood for some Thai, Chinese and Korean etc. foods that they do enjoy and like but are obviously not gonna try to cook at home if possible. Given that they’re rich it wouldn’t even be that big a deal to show that.

But why would they care for something that the audience is literally telling them when they refuse to leave their comfort zone and want to stick with the age old formulas?

Content wins.

Saathiya worked at 7 pm, blockbuster hit.

Almost every other show flopped at that slot.

Mere Angne main was getting good trps at 6 pm, Veera was moved to 5 pm, people watched.

Originally posted by: A_Star39

i agree that itv never came out of its stereotypes.

If we talk about Sarabhai into 2005 they did had a diverse pov where they included Gujarati cusine and also gave terms like dairy free,veganism and also explored different cusines.

Fashion sense was very upbeat and they actually where on track with Y2K era.Also Monisha who was bahu of Sarabhai wore jeans and western fits.

Ekta could have done the same with viranis and could have given them the metropolitan habits and lifestyle.But ig she wanted to keep it traditional.

Like in 2025 women are wearing jeans now but I have not seen any Sanskari bahu wearing jeans or even one western outfit for even a day.Western clothing is only the norm for vamps.If you see Pari or mitali who are the vamps are wearing western fits but Vrinda is the goody two shoes wearing salwar suit.See I know she's from a poor family but I feel even lower middle class people are wearing western fits.I know clothes don't matter character does but why are we pushing this stereotype more.Cant we see a change?

I watched only murders in building and I was pleasantly impressed by its concept and wished that if ITV can explore a different storytelling genre.Also abbot elementary was a good watch which was actually like a mockumentary in a school background.

Ekta can do a different thing in ITV but I feel audience doesn't want to change

Indian OTT is giving new stories but I feel channels don't want to reinvent as they are scared of audience rejecting it.Look at panchayat or gullak.They are successful in ott game

SP did gave good shows back like everest,airlines,gulmohar grand but I feel they just stopped.

Itv will become fully irrelevant if makers don't change.Mainly audience should change

J D Majethia and Aatish Kapadia are truly producers par excellence; they made such diverse shows in the comedy genre alone - Sarabhai, Khichdi, Baa Bahoo aur Baby. All their shows featured Gujarati families and each one was unique in its own way and even when they often had the same actors across all three shows, the characters themselves were written so brilliantly that the same person playing those characters would be as different as apples and oranges.

I remember there was even a crossover between Khichdi and Sarabhai as the Pathak sisters shared screen and it was such a blast.

Now, all characters look and sound the same, they even seem the same.

You rightly mentioned costumes still being equated with the shade of character when in Panchayat itself we have a very traditionally dressed Kranti Devi spewing venom, Rinki who plays an unmarried young girl in a small village wear jeans and kurtis and she’s the love interest of the main protagonist. What’s really refreshing is that she’s not shown as a topper or even remotely studious, she’s simply not that thrilled about studying while Abhishek is ambitious and a good student who misses an opportunity by a small margin the first time around to land the job.

But even now Vrinda is shown in the same salwar kameez that I dare say our mothers got stitched; probably using the saree from our grandmothers.

Indian OTT space is so good and some of these shows are so enjoyable and entertaining that you truly feel frustrated that they don’t churn them out as regularly as it happens in the west where unless a show is cancelled or there’s a strike of some association or union involved with the industry, a season is out almost like clockwork every year.

There’s way too much quantity where the quality is sorely lacking and not enough on the OTT where it truly needs to improve and deliver on time as the time and money invested in those shows so feels worth it. Moreover, regardless of the genre you don’t feel your intelligence as a viewer is undermined by the makers and that directly affects the quality of the content and your enjoyment as a consequence.

Originally posted by: missFiesty_69

I honestly couldn’t agree more — the lack of fresh stories and ideas is a big reason why Bollywood and Hindi TV no longer have the same cultural impact they once did. What’s interesting is that while technology and access have evolved, the mindset within the industry hasn’t.

Audiences today aren’t limited anymore — they’re watching Korean dramas, Western shows, and regional Indian content that’s often much more creative and grounded. So when Hindi shows or films keep repeating the same formulas—unrealistic families, over-the-top villains, weak writing—it just feels outdated and, frankly, boring. It’s not that people don’t enjoy emotional or dramatic stories anymore; they just want those emotions to feel real and come from good writing. Angst ke naam pe kuch bhi dikhate hain aaj kal!

I agree, Ekta’s early shows were groundbreaking for their time. They connected with people, especially women, because they showed their emotions and struggles, even if the stories were exaggerated. But that audience has changed now. Today’s viewers—whether homemakers, working professionals, or young people—have been exposed to so many different kinds of stories. They want characters and situations that they can relate with, and feels real, not just being over the top or outdated.

The irony is that India has incredible storytelling talent. You see it shining on OTT platforms, in regional cinema, and independent projects. The Hindi industry just lacks the courage to try new ideas. Producers still think playing it safe is good business, but it’s actually what’s killing the spark.

Reinventing doesn’t mean losing the “masala” that makes itv special — it just means updating how stories are told so they actually connect with today’s audience. Until the industry realises viewers have moved on, both emotionally and culturally, things will continue to stay the same.

In my opinion, the audience also needs to stop watching this kind of nonsense. Only then will producers be forced to step up and think about what people actually want to see on their screens.

It’s a vicious cycle — the audience keeps waiting for producers to bring good content but rarely supports it enough when it does come, while producers keep feeding us the same old nonsense and playing it safe.

P.S marvelling over how articulately you have said it all. ;)

@blue - thank you ☺️

Regarding Bollywood and ITV, Bollywood would rather churn out absolute and absurd duds to launch nepotistic babies and franchises that make you truly wonder what would you do with the kind of money that they practically throw down the drain when they make these braindead pieces of trash.

Bollywood would rather blame the audiences for not turning up and the government for allegedly inciting the audiences against them than admit that they have erred and erred grievously.

They still can’t comprehend and recalibrate themselves regarding how COVID has permanently altered the way that Indians consume content. We never had the kind of time, access and variety of content that we did with the lockdowns; with nowhere to go and nothing to do to kill time. It opened up a world of possibilities that we never knew existed before or never explored before in as much depth where we could spoil ourselves silly and watch content that spanned across all eras and had no geographical or linguistic barriers. We had the privilege of subtitles where dubbed versions didn’t exist with unlimited data at our disposal and frankly no one to nag about being a couch potato.

And that has irrevocably altered the game, unfortunately the players who have the ability to make waves are missing.

Bollywood would rather eat its own arm and leg than admit that they need fresh talent not just in front of the camera but also behind it; preferably the kind that is willing to take pride in their country and its people, history and culture, but they wouldn’t do that, then wonder how do the likes of RRR and Kantara work pan-India when their leads are barely fluent in Hindi as a language. They know what the answer is, what RRR and Kantara had in spades that they’re missing but they don’t want to admit it and mend their ways.

With TV, the issue is that much like with movies, the audience that demanded and craved change has moved onto greener pastures across platforms where the sheer volume and variety of content across platforms is more than anyone can fathom and humanly consume now in a post pandemic world. There’s content across the globe that this audience can now easily access even as they’re travelling to and from work be it in metros, buses, trains, planes or while relaxing at home.

The content on TV now is catered towards the people from the tier 2,3 and 4 cities and villages and even there it’s for the mums and dads who are not tech savvy even if they have access to internet, the money to buy a good smartphone/TV etc. I remember once Ekta said in an interview somewhere that she’s accused that her shows are slow, but they’re meant to be slow as they serve as BG white noise in a way for the mums who work tirelessly from day to night for their families. These ladies sometimes don’t have the luxury of spending time with their loved ones who are all busy with work, school, classes etc. so they do their chores and keep themselves entertained with these shows simultaneously. They are not looking for shows that need their attention but that still appeal to them. That’s why sometimes the show drags a plot so much that even if you miss a week’s worth of episodes you don’t really miss anything worthwhile. Her successors - Shahi, Sharma etc. obviously had the same idea and ran with it in their own ways.

So, Bollywood will perhaps not change until they go bankrupt; because clearly KJo would rather sell 50 percent stakes of his company than stop forcing Alia into everything he can whether it is made by his company or not.

TV will not change unless the mums and dads in the above mentioned criteria absolutely refuse to watch trash; and there is no way that’s happening until and unless they get tech savvy enough to get hooked onto YouTube or whatever appeals to them and TV channels are quite literally forced to adapt.

So ironically, TV has more hope than Bollywood… it probably just needs time and maybe some crazy idea by Ambanis to revolutionise Indian content - given that they practically own everything except Sony and Zee already

So here’s hoping Ambani Kaka gets a complaint from his mum or wife about there being NOTHING interesting to watch on Indian TV that’s enjoyable. Heard he had the idea to start Jio because his daughter complained about the shabby internet service one day; let’s hope Kokila Ben or Nita Ji are annoyed and whiny one day about how our TV shows suck!

Yep it wins for sure. Something has to click.

We somehow are not getting anything in terms of that sort of craze for a show these days which is saying something. Even homemakers are not tuning into shows as they did before because even they think some of these suck so much that they’d rather spend their time on something else.