"Ye Hai Mohabbatein" fame actress Divyanka Tripathi, who has developed a special bond with the show's producer Ekta Kapoor, says working with a female visionary is a fun and an amazing experience. She considers Ekta an inspiration for many women to step into the business of entertainment behind the camera.
"Working with a lady boss is always amazing and more fun. Ekta is a very creative person, and always gives us the right suggestion. Perhaps that also comes from the fact that apart from being a producer, she is also a writer. She pampers all of us and she deserves all the respect that she has earned over a period of time," Divyanka told IANS in an interview.
While gender equality in the entertainment business is a raging subject of discussion, especially at a time when the number of women crew members behind the camera is on the rise, Divyanka says Ekta started things way before the constant talk on feminism started on public forums and social media.
"There are many reasons why I respect Ekta and one of them is where she started from. Though she is the daughter of a yesteryear superstar like Jeetendraji, she started making her TV shows at the basement of her house, and went on to become one of the influential names in the business of TV entertainment. I think she is an inspiration to many women."
The show "Ye Hai Mohabbatein" started in 2013 and continues to run today with a steady popularity.
Asked if she expected such success in the beginning, Divyanka said: "Honestly, we never had the expectation to match up the TRP race and survive, so successfully with the show because the storyline of our show was very different when we started five years ago.
"Here, the leading lady gets emotionally attached to a little girl and that is how ending up getting married to a divorced man. Later they fall in love as a couple. Since the story was very different, we kept working on it, expecting to connect with the audience with a certain conviction.
"Of course now it is much easier to continue the show as we have managed to establish all the characters well in the memory of our audience. Now, we fortunately have a strong base of fans and followers."
Does she find a difference in her own performance after so many years?
"I think I have grown as an actress in these five years, but I loved those days of the beginning of our show where my character was pretty new and naive," Divyanka said.
