Shweta Tiwari rose to fame from her debut show Kasautii Zindagi Kay. (Photo Credits: X)
Shweta Tiwari mentioned that whenever Ekta Kapoor felt the TRP was dropping, she would suggest dramatic plot twists, like killing a character.
Shweta Tiwari became a household name right from her first TV drama Kasautii Zindagi Kay, which aired from 2001 to 2008, and was a huge hit. In 2018, the show made a comeback with fresh faces, which left viewers feeling nostalgic. Recently, in an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Shweta shared some intriguing behind the scenes stories from her time on the show. She revealed that the production team often had episodes ready but the team used to scrap them at the last moment. Shweta also talked about how the show’s plot twists were influenced by TRP ratings. She mentioned that whenever producer Ekta Kapoor felt the rating was dropping, she would suggest dramatic plot twists, like killing a character, to boost viewer interest.
The actress explained, “It’s all about TRP. As soon as Ekta felt that it was getting low, ‘kill someone.’ Our TRP chart would break. The TRP used to be 32 in those days. If it came slightly below 32, ‘TRP has dropped, kill someone. Make Prerna a bar dancer,’ something would always be happening and suddenly, we would find out on set that this is happening today.”
Talking about the sudden story changes, Shweta Tiwari shared, “We had an entire week’s worth of episodes ready. Then suddenly, one day we go to the set and we’re told, ‘We’re shooting tomorrow’s telecast.’ I’m thinking, ‘Why are we shooting tomorrow’s telecast? We already have a week’s worth of episodes ready.’ Someone said, ‘No, everything has been scrapped. Ekta said Anurag is dying.’ I’m like, ‘What? How did this happen?’ Then during Karwa Chauth, she kills Aparna. I’m like, ‘but Aparna was good, what happened?’ So we had such twists and turns.”
The actress further shared her views on how television shows have evolved over the years. She believes that shows from her era were better in quality. According to her, modern shows sometimes feature unrealistic scenarios, like people getting trapped, which she finds hard to relate to. Shweta pointed out that even during her time, there were storylines involving huge amounts of money, like characters discussing millions of rupees. Back then, viewers could connect with the idea of wealthy characters, even if the situations weren’t entirely realistic.
Shweta Tiwari went on to explain that today’s TV shows often feature unrealistic scenes. For example, characters might survive snake bites without any issue or people could be shown hanging from kites.
