Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi

Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (Because a Mother-in-law was once a Daughter-in-law too) is a popular Hindi soap opera produced by Balaji Telefilms, that revolves around the lives of the fictitious Virani family.

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Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi Official logo.

Originally, the serial was supposed to be called "Amma" (Mother), but was revised to the current title on the suggestion of the costume designer. Now go have a pee break b4 you sit down to read this crap..

Claim to Fame

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Ekta Kapoor, the queesn of Indian television.

The pilot episode aired in the year 2000, at the same time as Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants To Be A Millionare?). The show was an immediate success, and gained audiences not only in India, but also with Hindi viewers in Pakistan, Canada, United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, Kenya and New Zealand. ^{[citation needed]}

The show achieved the all time highest television ratings of any serial in the history of Indian television. ^{[citation needed]}

Original Plot

The story, set in Mumbai, focuses on the Virani family which hails from Gujarat. The Viranis are quite successful and well-known in the corporate world. The story is focused on Tulsi Virani, daughter of the family priest, who elopes with the family's eldest son, Mihir. All the members except Govardhan Virani, the patriach, and Amba Virani, the matriarch, are against it. Due to anger, the daughters-in-law of the family, Savita (Apara Mehta), Daksha (Ketaki Dave) and Gayatri (Kamalika Guhathakurta) blame Tulsi for instigating the family's eldest son, Mihir for marrying him and entering the rich household from a smaller, middle-class family. However, due to respect and belief in God Shri Shrinathji, called Thakurji, a form of Lord Krishna, Tulsi fights the injustice and battles her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law's devrani (wives of the younger brothers of a woman's husband), in this case Savita.

The entire serial focuses on the battle between the mothers-in-law and Tulsi and in the process teaching them a lesson and earning respect from her family members. Along the road, many new characters enter the scene and the episodes are spiced up with several affairs. The archnemesis of Tulsi outside the household is Payal, Mihir's one time fiancee who instigates members of the Virani household, especially Savita, to boot Tulsi out of the house so she could have another chance at Mihir. However, Mihir dies (misconception of the family, he has amnesia and is in Delhi) and the bitter fight over Mihir is over between Tulsi and Payal. Due to family pressure, Tulsi agrees to marry another man, but at the altar, Mihir comes back and joy is back in the heart of Tulsi. But, the doctor who took care of Mihir, Mandira is the sister of the groom, Anupam who was supposed to marry Tulsi and plans to get Mihir, since she has fallen in love with him and comes up with some plans to devastate the marriage of Tulsi and Mihir. One of them is feigning pregnancy. In the process, Payal tries to forget Mihir and decides to enter the household by marrying Hemant, Mihir's younger brother and then destroying the entire family, since even Savita won't support her now. But, at last, Truth triumphs and all the misconceptions are gone and everything is fair and well. Tulsi also gives birth to a son, named Gautam who is adopted by her barren sister-in-law. Due to jealousy and animosity, she runs away with the child and her husband, Kiran, younger brother of Mihir to Australia and everyone is shocked. Tulsi tries to forget her son and gives birth to a daughter named Shobha. Pooja, Mihir's cousin Hemant's wife, gives birth to a boy named Sahil.

The First 20 Year Leap

This was the timeleap during which the transition was made, at first gradually, from KSBKBT’s actors presenting the story to KSBKBT’s story presenting whatever actors were both available and popular. At least until the arrival of the charismatic villainous Ansh midway through this timeleap, no character from any generation was totally neglected. Hemant and Pooja were actively taking sides during the Mandira situation, and Chirag and Prajakta were significant during the prelude to the denouement of Harsh’s true parentage. But after the hugely popular Ansh’s arrival? Most of the characters were sent out of town, abroad or married off or even simply disappeared without mention, as the plot completely revolved around Tulsi, Ansh and Karan, with all tracks relevant only through their association with one or more of these three characters.

This 20-year leap was a huge risk, with actors in their 20s having to play middle-aged parents, and middle-aged actors having to play grandparents. Even with the fear of being typecast into an ‘old’ age-bracket, the actors – with the exception of male lead Amar ‘Mihir’ Upadhyay – decided to stick it out for the series that had made every one of them a household name. So with no Mihir, the first several weeks post-timeleap had to sharply limit the Tulsi-Mihir storyline and focus mostly on the new generation, at least until a ‘Mihir’ could be found. Inder Kumar proved an adequate but uncharismatic replacement for some time, but was soon replaced by Ronit Roy at which point Mihir-Tulsi as a track was back in force.

The timeleap’s new entrants: Gautam ‘Gomzi’ Virani – the son Tulsi had given in adoption to her then barren devrani Aarti. Shobha – Tulsi’s daughter, as pliable as her mother was not and adored by everyone. Sahil – Tulsi’s perfect virtuous idealistic nephew, who has been taught by his generous mother Pooja (Hemant’s wife and Tulsi’s second devrani) to call Tulsi ‘badi-ma’ (senior mother) to staunch Tulsi’s pain of losing Gautam. Harsh, Tulsi’s dutiful youngest son. Karishma, Kiran and Aarti’s druggie daughter. Indu, the empty-headed, starry-eyed but loving daughter of Sejal (Hemant’s younger sister). Tarun, Sahil’s erring younger brother. Savri and Bavri, the youngest of their generation, daughters of Mihir’s youngest cousin Chirag. Gautam’s first several encounters with the Viranis, especially Shobha and Tulsi, were disastrous. But then Kiran returned home, and Gautam was told the truth of his parentage and persuaded to reacknowledge Mihir and Tulsi as his legal parents. He established an excellent equation with all his siblings other than Sahil. Tulsi’s oscillation between authoritarian and doting did not sit well with her equally selfwilled son. Gautam’s adoptive mother Aarti, in a desperate bid to get him back, searched for and found the perfect girl for him. Teesha Mehta – candid, introvert, intense and caring. At the same time, Tulsi met Ganga Joshi, a principled sensible young tuition-teacher, a girl with all the overtly religious habits Tulsi herself had. Tulsi decided the girl was the perfect wife to ‘improve’ Gautam. In between, Tulsi twice blamed Gautam for things he had not done, once humiliating him at home and cementing an antipathy for the completely blameless Sahil, and the second time leaving him in jail after Ganga mistakenly accused him. Tulsi then tied up Gautam’s finances to his wedding a girl Tulsi approved. Gautam, already in love with Teesha, was convinced Tulsi and Ganga had united to rob him of his inheritance. He married Ganga, but stayed physically and emotionally faithful to Teesha. Shobha married Vishal Mehra, the son of Tulsi’s original archnemesis Payal. Gautam stood witness at the court-marriage, and later when Payal set Vishal against Shobha, Gautam and Teesha stepped in to save Shobha’s marriage. Gautam having left the house, Ganga and her devar (husband’s younger brother) Sahil fell in love.

The charming but mysterious and grey-shaded Karan (Balaji Telefilms’s defunct series “Kutumb”’s hero brought his popularity to his new role as well), a friend of Sahil’s from abroad, also appeared on the scene and played matchmaker to bring Sahil and Ganga together. To reunite Gautam with his family, Teesha left for Australia. After several more subplots in between, Tulsi finally realized her mothering attitude to Gautam had been willfully blind, as she hadn’t just sought to correct his bad habits but rather to replace all his habits with Virani traits that pleased her. Mother and son finally bridged the gap, and Tulsi went to get Teesha back. Gautam followed her, and the three had some fabulous bonding and mutual-pampering time. Then Tulsi saw the supposedly twenty-years deceased Mandira alive with Mihir, and became circumstantially convinced that Mihir had concealed Mandira’s existence to have a longstanding affair with her. Mihir explained the truth about the coercive circumstances created by Mandira, but Tulsi didn’t believe him. Karan then revealed to Tulsi that he was Mihir’s and Mandira’s son. Since Karan believed his mother’s lifelong lies, he blamed Mihir and turned Tulsi against Mihir. The whole family turned against Mihir, except ironically most recent entrant Teesha who looked on Tulsi and Mihir as her parents rather than in-laws and was certain Mihir loved and adored only Tulsi. After the Gautam-Teesha and Sahil-Ganga weddings, Mihir was goaded by Tulsi into leaving the house. The balancing sweetness in the family came from the doting ‘sisters’ equation established by Teesha and Ganga, and they began to get the distant Sahil and Gautam more and more cordial to each other. Then Shobha and Teesha both became pregnant and everyone was delighted. But the shadow of the Mandira situation wreaked havoc again, and first Shobha had a miscarriage, and then after Mihir proved Mandira’s truth to everyone except Karan, Mandira tried to kill Tulsi and inadvertently killed Teesha and her unborn daughter instead, as well as faking Mandira’s own death. Karan still thought his mother was a saint, so he continued his attacks against the Viranis and especially Tulsi’s championing son Gautam. Gautam finally retaliated by tricking Karan’s love and support Damini into marriage but then felt guilty for separating her from her love and tried to reunite her and Karan. But Damini decided to stick with the marriage, and she and Gautam grew to love each other and she and Karan became best friends and confidantes. Then Karan was proven the truth about Mandira, and Tulsi was persuaded by the Viranis to accept him as her son. Remorseful Karan adored Tulsi, replacing Gautam as her foremost champion, and became the perfect dutiful Virani son. Sahil’s maasi’s (mother’s sister) daughter Nandini arrived and became Karan’s love-interest.

Then it was revealed that Harsh was really Tulsi’s sister’s son, and had been interchanged with Tulsi’s own son. After a lot of efforts, it was found out that Ansh Gujral, a psychopathic young underworld scion, was Tulsi’s longlost son. He was obsessed with Nandini, and entered the Virani family and pretended to improve into a good son and person to trick Tulsi into matchmaking him with Nandini. Karan sacrificed his love, and Ansh and Nandini married. But he made her life hell, and turned everyone against Karan and Nandini. Gautam and Damini had twin sons, but since Ganga had a miscarriage, Gautam was coerced into giving his elder son to Ganga. Ansh finally raped Nandini. He also arranged the murder of Shobha’s husband Vishal without letting Abhishek know. Abhishek was Ansh’s crime-associate, Vishal’s business-partner, fond of Vishal, in love with Shobha, and trying to use Vishal without getting him hurt. Tulsi shot Ansh dead, but – thanks to the zealous efforts of her lawyer friend Meera and Karan – she was sentenced to only three years imprisonment. Nandini was pregnant with Ansh’s child when she and Karan married. Pregnant Shobha married Abhishek, and bore first Vishal’s son and then Abhishek’s daughter. Nandini went into coma while giving birth to daughter Bhumi, and Karan was persuaded to marry close friend Tanya to provide Bhumi with a mother. Ganga gave birth to a son Lakshya. When Tanya became pregnant, Nandini came out of coma and returned into Karan’s life. Doctors said Nandini must not have trauma, so Karan’s marriage to Tanya was kept secret. Ansh’s foster-father Aditya Gujral came to avenge his son’s death, and made the Viranis’ lives hell, taking over their business and wanting custody of ‘grand-daughter’ Bhumi. Nandini finally killed him, and was sentenced to 14 years life imprisonment. (Yes, Tulsi got three years for defending the adult Nandini, and Nandini got 14 years for defending her little daughter!) As per Gujral's will, most of his wealth went to Bhumi but since she was a minor, Nandini looked after the money, and after she was imprisoned, she requested Karan to look for some Shraddha, whose name was in the will, to give her her share. Tulsi and Tanya investigated and found out about Ansh’s beloved pre-psychopathy first wife Shraddha and son Eklavya, and brought the boy home since Shraddha was dead. Gautam adopted Eklavya. Meera loved Mihir and had turned negative, and turned Savita completely against Tulsi. Shobha got into politics. When Savita realized she had been played aginst Tulsi, she went against Meera. Mandira and Meera united and arranged Savita’s accident while all the Viranis except Tulsi were abroad for a few days, turning Savita into a semi-vegetable. In a ridiculization of the crucial ethical dilemma of euthanasia, Tulsi took only a few days to consent to the tormented Savita’s pleas for euthanasia. After Ansh’s death, Savita’s death became the second wedge in Tulsi’s and Mihir’s relationship.

Harsh’s scheming gold-digger wife Mohini made two alliances (Meera and Tripti) and her connivance was invaluable in the ouster of two Virani wives (Tulsi and Ganga). Ganga was tricked into believing Sahil was having an affair with Mohini, and humiliated the innocent Sahil into Mohini’s secret best friend Tripti’s arms. Sahil felt he was with Tripti after Ganga had thrown him out of her life, and Ganga thought he was a serial philanderer with extramarital affairs with first Mohini and then Tripti. Instead of making Ganga see sense and dragging Sahil back, Tulsi sided with Ganga and threw Sahil out of the house. Sahil’s grandmother Gayatri sided with Sahil and threw Ganga out of the house to bring in Sahil and Tripti, refusing to let Ganga take Nakul and Lakshya with her. Meera convinced Mihir that Tulsi had forced euthanasia on Savita against Savita’s wishes, and Mihir threw Tulsi out of the house. He then burned all photos of her. Circumstances led everyone to believe Tulsi was dead, and Karan turned against Mihir. (First for not valuing Mandira, then for not valuing Tulsi. Karan valued Mihir only if Mihir was valuing whoever Karan considered ‘mother’ at the time!) Remorseful teetotaler Mihir turned into an overnight alcoholic, and also made a sketch of Tulsi. But Tulsi secretly returned home a few days later, only the problem was her trust in Mihir was as fragile as his in her, and when she saw Meera initiating an embrace (Mihir repulsed it just as hidden Tulsi turned away) and heard tabloid-reporters discussing the ‘inevitable’ nuptials of the ‘recently bereaved widower’ Mihir Virani with Meera, she left the house and the city without checking the facts. She went to Haridwar, and adopted an abandoned baby girl, who was thereafter named Krishnatulsi (“Tulsi” off Tulsi’s own name, and the prefixed “Krishna” since this was during the Krishnapaksh part of the month by the Hindu calendar).

Shraddha?

Shraddha, as it turns out, was Ansh's adored wife and mother of his child, but when she found out that she was terminally ill with a heart-ailment, she left Ansh after lying to him that she was having an affair, because if he found out the truth, the news would simply devastate him. Unfortunately, her performance convinced him so well that she had no hope of undoing the damage when her doting husband turned into a psychopath after the leaving of his 'adulterous' wife.

Shraddha had a son (Eklavya) who, when she died from a heart attack, was taken by Tulsi and Tanya to Shantinektan, where not everyone believed he was Ansh's son. In particular Savita. She claimed that Tulsi has just picked up any old kid and brought him home to mitigate her guilt for Ansh's death. After one accident where Eklavya accidntally pushed Bhoomi, causing her to bang her head on the marble floor and have severe bleeding, that (very laughably and stupidly, because this was really inaccurate enough to laugh at) they had to get a C.A.T. scan done. Savita now hated Tulsi even more for bringing Eklavya home. So after a huge family fight, usual in these soaps, Savita wanted to leave, she said either she or Eklavya would stay here. But Tulsi said she'd leave with Eklavya, who almost everyone loved, other than Savita.

On the morning of leaving, when Tulsi was about to go, she was stopped by Gautam who showed legal documents to the family that he had now adopted Eklavya (without his wife Damini's involvement?!), that he was the legal father of Eklavya now, and that it was Mihir's solution to resolve the crisis. Savita was furious that her son and grandson both sided against her for Tulsi. Tulsi gradually bridged to some extent the distance Savita maintained with Ekalavya.

The Future For KSBKBT: Episodes Yet to Come

Ushering in with its generation next the 7 new faces will hold the new look of the show as they get introduced in the Virani parivaar. KSBKBT has maintained a double digit TRP for more than over 5 years in succession setting a benchmark record in television viewership, and is sure to have the viewers rejoicing this time too with its new look, that the fresh faces bring to the show, with this leap.

Commenting on the occasion said Shailja Kejriwal, Senior Creative Director, Star India, "It was absolutely logical to take this leap, as even after 5 years Kyunki, remains a clear leader amongst television soaps across channels, and to remain at that level its always important to constantly innovate, so it was essential to bring in freshness to the story, with this leap into the future."

Ever since Tulsi left 'Shantiniketan', the house hasn't seen a single day filled with happiness or joy. Ganga's moving out of the house too, has lead to the unsought entry of conniving- Meera into the Virani's house, which is no longer left with any sense of warmth or togetherness. Because of which Mihir finds himself disoriented & totally lost in the dismal situation that 'Shantiniketan' is in. Aging & going forward 20 years the show will bring in a breeze of newness & hope to Virani parivaar as it unveils the 4th generation of the family along with its new protagonist or the heir to Tulsi's legacy named Krishna Tulsi- a new character in the show, she will be a strong character rooted to the culture & family values which are characterized by her innocence, intelligence and go-getter attitude.

Elaborating on Krishna Tulsi, Ekta Kapoor said, "It is time Tulsi passes on the baton to the younger generation. I was very particular about what I wanted from the actor as it is a very important role that she, as Krishna Tulsi, will be playing and I am happy that I narrowed down to the best. I am quite sure she will do complete justice to the role. For six years Kyunki, has been the No 1 serial and the mix of characters will make the plot all the more interesting. Not only the new characters, but also the new sets and the new look of the existing characters will make the prime slot worth waiting."

The serial introduces a mix of characters be it the religious, mischievous, sensitive (Krishna) Laksh, son of Sahil & Ganga, Nakul, who is bitter due to his non-wealthy status. Then there is also the leader Bhumi - a spoilt brat and a tomboy, who is the biological daughter of Nandini & Ansh, and the adopted daughter of Nandini and Karan. We will also see Akashdeep Saighal (Ansh) coming back to the show in the role of Eklavya, where he plays Ansh's son but in a positive role. The family mix completes with Manthan, son of Karan & Tanya, who like Meera and Mandira is shrewd, brooding and very manipulative. Living with this family is also the self-effacing geek Joydeep, a distant relative to the family of Sahil's family, now adopted by Sahil.

Criticism

The serial has received and survived some tough times due to the high level of criticism from both viewers and TV critics. Appearances of the characters are a point to be seen. Earlier, the clothes' utilitarian look or stylishness were suited to the occasion and situation. Now, glamour is the be-all and end-all. The traditional sari worn by the female characters is always gorgeous & elegant even if the woman is supposedly working in the kitchen at the time. Tulsi's saris are usually inexpensive but heavily embroidered. Some of the other supposedly non-glamorous ladies have frequently even had their hair coloured several bizarre shades.

Another criticism that has been applied is that it is very unrealistic and does not portray the reality of life. The only references to the family business are on the grand scale - huge contracts to be won or lost, some factory on fire. The nittygritty that was present in the serial's beginning is no longer there. And widows and widowers are, within months of bereavement, encouraged to remarry, being given no time to grieve.

There are several examples of discontinuity and self-contradictions in the serial. Timing is just another factor that the producers seldom take into account. For example, merely to show a melodramatic karvaachauthh dilemma for Tulsi-Mihir & Karan-Nandini-Tanya, the serial-makers conveniently forgot that this annual ritual had happened in the story a few months earlier when Tanya was at least two months pregnant. And instead of criticism for having two occurences of an annual ritual during the course of one pregnancy, everyone kept harping about Tanya's pregnancy being ludicrously lengthy.

And the writers seem to have no memory of the characters' names. Earlier, they forgot the marital surname of secondary character Sejal Virani Gandhi. Now, they have gone and forgotten Ganga's pre-Virani surname was Joshi, and she introduces herself frequently as 'Ganga Mehta'. The first time she did that, the viewers thought she'd married a Mehta. But no, she's supposedly reverted to her pre-marital surname but evidently forgot what it was. And 'Mehta' is a favourite of the KSBKBT writers. Karan pre-Virani used the surname 'Mehta'. Gautam's deceased wife Teesha's pre-marital surname actually was 'Mehta'. And there were at least a couple of other instances. So, Ganga MEHTA, forward!

And perhaps the greatest deviation from its USP was the transformation of Tulsi from a role-model into a self-proclaimed divinely blessed avenging arm of God... from a girl you couldn't help but like into a woman whose every catastrophic mistake & error of judgement was promptly forgotten not only by her but by every other character as well. Her every wrong decision, her supporting characters say this is the first time she's wrong. And then the next time, everyone says it again. And Tulsi herself has total selective amnesia about her errors.

The series started off with Tulsi as the girl who won't let anyone slap her if she's in the right, regardless of their being her elders. And then the series metamorphosed into the cliched "if someone is your familial elder, you should silently endure their insults and slaps even if they are wrong." And every Virani male except Gautam (before his enrolling in Tulsi's lapdogs-coterie) has dutifully turned the other cheek for their elders' slaps. But if a woman is slapped even once, there is a major melodrama about the injustice being inflicted on her. Basically, Virani men now have non-existent self-respect and are shown as being incapable of handling crises not only at home but at work as well. It's always the women who defend the family and the business against trouble. The men may, however, lend a helping hand to their sterlingly capable women led by Tulsi.

Before the first time-leap and even well into it, all the characters had significant tracks in the story. So well, in fact, that Mihir's brothers Hemant, Kiran and Chirag are still remembered as strongly characterized individuals. But with the entry of the extremely charismatic Ansh who was to be killed by his mother Tulsi, the focus shifted onto the Tulsi-Ansh and Karan-Nandini-Ansh tracks, with other characters' tracks usually attached to either or both of those two tracks. Earlier, everyone had something to do in the story, and if someone wasn't seen for a few episodes, you wondered where that particular character was. But suddenly, characters were disappearing, sometimes with a mere mention that the character was abroad, sometimes with no mention at all. Sahil's parents are no longer on the roster, and he and his now ex-wife Ganga seem to frequently forget that Mihir and Tulsi are his elder uncle and aunt, NOT his parents. Sahil is also supposedly in near-penury after losing his share of the family-properties, and yet neither his father nor his younger brother Tarun are mentioned as having had any share at all during the division of the properties. Actually, they are not mentioned as even being dead or alive. Sahil is in better shape than his sibling. At least we know he exists!

And the most in-your-face glitch of all, after Mihir burns every photograph even partially featuring Tulsi in the house, this very wealthy corporate family's multitude of members have no way to get another photo of Tulsi, so a sketch made of Tulsi pre-plumpness (Mihir's fond memory of Tulsi sensibly prefers her slim) by a remorseful Mihir is displayed in various sizes in the house and among some of the family-members' individual personal effects. The woman was featured with various close-up headshot photographs of her in various newspaper-articles on several Virani-scandal occasions. And there were several scandals. None of the Viranis had commonsense enough to go to the newspapers' headquarters and inveigle their way into obtaining a picture of Tulsi Virani from the archives? If you've had the good or bad luck to have a family-member's face plastered in tabloids, don't presume that the tabloid in question has had the bad luck to lose their archive-contents. But wait, if there was such a photo of Tulsi in the house when Tulsi's foster-daughter walked in, the girl wouldn't have had the excuse of believing the supposedly dead woman to be a mere looklaike of her foster-mother.

Tulsi's foster-daughter. Krishnatulsi. There was a huge thing made about finding a girl who'd be Tulsi's image - charismatic, inspiring, righteous. Actually, the huge delay in finding her turned out to be a damp squib when the veil of secrecy was finally lifted. Mouni Roy is a competent actor but lacks charisma, and has been thoroughly overshadowed by her love-interest 'Lakshya' played by Pulkit Samrat who's turned into a rage. Smriti Malhotra Irani's 'Tulsi' held her own on both acting and charisma fronts from the very start of the series. 'Krishnatulsi' is not the next 'Tulsi', she's just one of the characters and far less charismatic than fellow peer 'Bhumi' played superbly by Reshmi Ghosh.

But the bottomline is that, all these shortcomings notwithstanding, 'Kyunki...' is a fictional serial, with the sole purpose of entertainment which it fulfills perfectly. Criticisms in their own place, the serial does what it has to to maintain its ratings. The performances are almost all sterling, the characters' chemistry with each other is at worst passable and at best magic, and the dialogues produce the rare gem that's worth waiting for. And perhaps the greatest proof of KSBKBT's Midas touch is that those of its actors who have gone on to do leads in serials of stupendous ('Kumkum', 'Saara Akaash') and passable ('Palkhi') success are still remembered *at least* as well for their KSBKBT roles. A series which started a trend, and even though it has jettisoned a lot of its goodsense as ballast along the way, it still leads the pack. Because its cast and crew have the combined capability to polish up the product so you keep coming back for more. And its poorest effort is better than most serials' best. Better enacted, better packaged and better presented.

When does it Air

The serial currently airs on Star Plus, Monday to Friday at 10:30 p.m.

Characters

Series lead pair (3rd generation Viranis)

Tulsi (Mihir)Virani -- Smriti Z Irani
Mihir (Mansukh)Virani -- Amar Upadhyay, Inder Kumar, Ronit Roy

Virani family

1st generation

Govardhan 'Baapuji' Virani -- Sudhir Dalvi
Amba 'Baa' (Govardhan)Virani -- Sudha Shivpuri

2nd generation

Mansukh (Govardhan)Virani -- Shakti Singh
Savita (Mansukh)Virani -- Apara Mehta
Himmat (Govardhan)Virani -- Jitendra Trehan
Daksha (Himmat)Virani -- Ketki Dave
Pragya (Govardhan)Virani(Naveen)Sanghvi -- Utkarsha Naik
Naveen Sanghvi --
Jamnadas 'JD'(Govardhan)Virani -- Muni Jha
Gayatri (Jamnadas)Virani -- Kamalika Guhathakurta

3rd generation

Kiran (Mansukh)Virani -- Jiten Lalwani
Aarti Patel(Kiran)ViraniPatel -- Eva Grover, Rushali
Hemant (Jamnadas)Virani -- Shakti Anand
Pooja (Hemant)Virani -- Prachi Shah
Suhasi Virani -- Pooja Ghai Rawal
Rakesh -- Prashant Bhatt
Chirag (Himmat)Virani -- Hussain Kuwajerwala
Prajakta Deshmukh(Chirag)Virani -- Tuhinaa Vohra
Sejal (Jamnadas)Virani(Anand)Gandhi -- Khyati Khandke
Anand Gandhi -- Romanchak Arora
Mandira Kapadia(Kiran)Virani(Aditya)Gujral -- Mandira Bedi, Achint Kaur

4th generation

Gautam (Mihir)Virani -- Sumeet Sachdev
Teesha Mehta(Gautam)Virani -- Ashlesha Sawant
Damini Khanna(Gautam)Virani -- Riva Babbar, Ravee Gupta
Aniket -- Shabbir Ahluwalia
Indira 'Indu'(Anand)Gandhi -- Karishma Tanna
Shobha (Mihir)Virani(Vishal)Mehra -- Ritu Choudhry Seth
Vishal (Pratap)Mehra -- Rohit Bakshi
Abhishek -- Vivan Bhatena, Nasir Qazi
Sahil (Hemant)Virani -- Sandeep Baswana, Amit Sareen, Sandeep Baswana
Ganga Joshi(Gautam)Virani(Sahil)ViraniJoshi aka Mehta -- Shilpa Saklani Agnihotri
Karan (Mihir)Virani -- Hiten Tejwani
Ansh (Mihir)Virani aka(Aditya)Gujral -- Akashdeep Saigal
Nandini Thakkar(Ansh)Virani(Karan)Virani -- Gauri Pradhan Tejwani
Tanya Malhotra(Karan)Virani -- Rakshanda Khan
Shraddha (Ansh)Gujral{posthumously(Ansh)Virani} -- Moonmoon Bannerjee
Tarun (Hemant)Virani -- Abhijeet Khurana, Alok Arora
Tushar -- Manoj Bohra, Pradeep Kharab, Samir Sharma
Karishma (Kiran)Virani(Shantanu)Dey -- Kiran Dubey
Tripti (Sahil)Virani -- Suvarna Jha
Harsh (Mihir)Virani -- Mehul Kajaria
Mohini (Harsh)Virani -- Tasneem Sheikh
Shantanu Dey -- Narendra Jha
Vikram (Naveen)Sanghvi -- Rakesh Paul
Savri (Chirag)Virani --
Bavri (Chirag)Virani -- Hansika Motwani, Amita Chandekar

5th generation

Eklavya (Gautam)Virani{born (Ansh)Virani aka Gujral} -- Akashdeep Saigal
Nakul (Sahil)Virani{born (Gautam)Virani} -- Naman Shaw
Mayank (Gautam)Virani --
Bhumi (Karan)Virani {nee(Ansh)Virani} -- Chinky Jaiswal, Reshmi Ghosh
Pushkar (Vishal)Mehra --
Laksh (Sahil)Virani -- Pulkit Samrat
Pari (Abhishek) -- Garima Bhatnagar
Manthan (Karan)Virani -- Amit Tandon
Archita (Harsh)Virani -- Gunjan

Non-Viranis

Payal Parikh(Pratap)Mehra -- Jaya Bhattacharya
Pratap Mehra --
Anupam Kapadia -- Aman Verma
Kesar (Anupam)Kapadia -- Narayani Shastri, Resham Tipnis Seth
Rajeev Mehra --
Raj Bhasin -- Vishal Puri
Kabir -- Chaitanya Chaudhary
Meera Singhania -- Shubhaavi K.
Aditya Gujral -- Salim Shah
Maansingh Chauhan -- Chetan Hansraj
Vijay Saxena -- Makarand Deshpande
Kaushalya (Kaush) MalhotraSmith -- Suhasini Mulay
Krishnatulsi -- Mouni Roy
Joydeep -- Manav Vij
Abir -- Manoj Bidvai

Salary Report

According to each contract, each of the characters gets a specific amount of money, that is kept quite confidential, but early in 2005, reports were spilled to several key journal entries, that the main character, Tulsi Virani, played by Smriti Malhotra Irani gets paid Rs. 50,000 ($1000) per show, or in other words, around $405,000 per year (More than the income of the President of the United States of America), and it is possible that she is the highest earning TV Star in the history of Indian Television.

Trivia

In April 2005 the show celebrated its 1000th episode as well as the completion of 5 years on the air.
After the death of Mihir Virani in its early stages, the public forced (Ekta Kapoor), the producer/director of the serial, to revive the character, and it was supposedly done so according to the wishes of the public. Contrary information holds, on the other hand, that Mihir's re-entry was planned along with his 'death' and everyone kept their mouths shut to boost the ratings.
After the prominence of the serial and the well-knowing of the characters, it is very common for people to start a chat with the famous character when they meet in shops and people even get physically hostile with actors playing villains and vamps in the serial and causing trouble to the lead protagonist Tulsi.

External links