Kumkum Bhagya

Plot

Kumkum Bhagya is the story of Sarla Arora, who runs a marriage hall, lived with the hope of seeing her two daughters happily married. Pragya, the elder daughter, is practical, hard working and teaches at a college. Bulbul, the younger daughter, has her head in the clouds, has a job but hates her boss Purab. The show follows the lives of the two sisters and their hopes, dreams and aspirations. Initially, the series followed a love triangle between Pragya, Bulbul and Suresh, where Pragya loved Suresh, who had feelings for Bulbul, leading to Pragya and Suresh's engagement getting cancelled. Simultaneously, Abhishek (Abhi) is a rock star who was in a relationship with a supermodel called is Tanushree (Tanu) and Purab happened to be Abhi's best friend, who was engaged to his sister Aliya. Purab and Bulbul initially had hatred feelings for each other, but the story took a turn when the two fell in love. Aliya misunderstood his affair with Bulbul thinking that he loved Pragya. As a result, Aliya, Tanu together with Abhi planned to get Abhi married to Pragya out of revenge. After the marriage, Pragya got to know the whole situation and for her sister's protection, lied to Abhi that she indeed was in a relationship with Purab, and eventually asked Bulbul to forget Purab, which Bulbul agreed to.

Purab agreed to get married to Aliya as he got to know the whole situation as well, but was unable to forget Bulbul. He escaped on his marriage day with Aliya to marry Bulbul where she revealed to Abhi that she was the girl Purab loved, in order to save her sister from misery. A complicated relation started in everyone's life. Aliya and Tanu planned conspiracies against Pragya but their plans failed and bringed her more close to Abhi, leading them to develop fealings for one another. Abhi got to know Aliya and Tanu's true intentions, slapped Aliya for her wrongdoings, lead by her developing a grudge for her brother, he eventually improved his relation with Purab and Bulbul. Tanu on the other hand accidentally got pregnant after a one-night stand with a man called Nikhil. She faked her DNA reports and declared that Abhi was the father in order to get him back, leading to Abhi and Pragya's separation. Tanu was supported by Nikhil himself who wanted Abhi's wealth, Aliya who wanted exact revenge against him and Abhi's cousin brother Raj who blamed Abhi for his misfortune. Pragya overheard Aliya and Tanu's conversation but before telling Abhi, suffered an accident and was declared dead.

After one month, Pragya returned with a bold and arrogant appearance, having a new motive of revealing her enemies and getting Abhi back. In the same arc, Bulbul and Purab got married where a sequence of love and jealousy started between Bulbul, Purab and Aliya. Furthermore, to save her sister from Aliya, Bulbul risked her life and died. An infuriated Pragya finally revealed the truth about Aliya, who was then banished from the family. Raj, whose misunderstanding about Abhi was cleared by Pragya, turned positive and complicated his relationship with his wife Mitali for actually being responsible for his problem's. Pragya finally discovered Tanu and Nikhil's relation, decided to expose Tanu, but however failed to do so, but on the other Tanu got a miscarriage in an accident and blamed Pragya. Facing Abhi's anger, Pragya still proved herself right and finally revealed the truth about Tanu, having gained back his trust. The two proposed to each other in Abhi's mansion in Lonavla, after which Abhi losed his memory in a car accident meant for Pragya, getting amnesia and forgetting two-and-a-half years of his life, including Pragya. For his protection, Pragya decided to leave him, however did not divorce him.

The show roughly took a one-two month leap, and continued with Pragya overhearing her mother saying that she had lost the Kumkum Bhagya Marriage Hall. Determined to help her family, she enrolled as a receptionist at Love Life Music Company, where she met Abhi who came to record his new album. From there on they slowly became friends where Abhi hired her as his personal assistant. Aliya who took advantage of Abhi's amnesia returned back and wanted Abhi to marry Tanu in order to keep him away from Pragya. Abhi and Pragya's boss-employee relationship bloomed into something more and Abhi saw Pragya as his best friend and even something more. After much conspiracies Pragya challenged Aliya and Tanu that she will bring back Abhi's memory before his marriage with Tanu, she was supported by Dadi and Purab.

Development and premiere

The show premiered at 09:00 pm (IST) on Tuesday on 15 April 2014 and airs episodes from Monday to Friday.

Talking about introducing a fresh concept on primetime, Zee TV Programming Head, Namit Sharma said, "It takes one epic show to replace another, so you can imagine. It is a passionate drama of love, a far cry from regular saas-bahu soaps and has an ensemble cast of some very talented actors."

On this, Ekta Kapoor from Balaji Telefilms added, "While two of my shows(Pavitra Rishta and Jodha Akbar) are already on-air and doing immensely well on Zee TV, it's a pleasure to extend my partnership with Zee to a third show. Pavitra Rishta has had a run of over Five years now and the journey has been most gratifying for me as a producer. While the audiences who are hooked on to Pavitra Rishta will continue to enjoy the show at 6:30 PM, Kumkum Bhagya will open at 9 PM, drawing maximum eyeballs. It is so contemporary in its treatment that viewers will be able to instantly spot characters out of their own lives in the show. It's a story of passionate love that anyone with a soul would be able to easily relate to."

Speaking of his comeback as an actor, Shabbir Ahluwalia, the protagonist of the show says, "With me producing shows, it was getting very difficult to manage time for acting assignments. But now, I have decided to concentrate on acting. You can't be away from what you love doing for long. The role appealed to me a great deal. This is the first time that I will be playing a rockstar on television and in order to look my part, I had to ensure that I did not just get my costume and look right, but also get that attitude right that is required to portray a rockstar onscreen."

Casting

Series is a love story produced by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor under the banner Balaji Telefilms that airs on Zee TV. Ekta Kapoor considers the letter K to be lucky and has named many of her productions starting with K. Shabbir Ahluwalia, who was also cast in Ekta's TV Series Kayamath, was selected to portray the lead role of Abhishek Prem Mehra. Ahluwalia made his comeback after Zee 20 Cricket League. Actress Sriti Jha landed in lead role opposite Shabbir Ahluwalia in the show. Mrunal Thakur was selected to portray the second leading role of Bulbul while Arjit Taneja was cast opposite her. In May 2014, Shikha Singh entered the show as the main antagonist Aliya Mehra, while Madhurima Tuli was cast to portray the negative role of Tanu. Later Madhurima Tuli was replaced by Leena Jumani in September 2014. Actor Faisal Rashid was selected to portray the role of Suresh(Pragya's fiance) who played an important role in April–May 2014, but in May 2015 he quit the series. Actress Supriya Shukla was cast to play the role of Sarla Arora, while Madhu Raja played the role of Daljeet Arora. Other supporting cast include Samiksha Bhatnagar, Ankit Mohan and Charu Mehra and Amit Dhawan. Bhatnagar, who portrayed the supporting role of Mitali was replaced by Swati Anand within the month of launch while Anurag Sharma who also appeared in Ekta Kapoor's Yeh Hai Mohabbatein and Itna Karo Na Mujhe Pyaar replaced Amit. In 2015, Neel Motawani (who was also cast in other shows of Ekta) was selected to play the negative role of Neel; while in June 2015 Nikhil Arya entered the series playing the role of main male antagonist Nikhil Sood.

In December 2015. Actress Mrunal Thakur who played the role of Bulbul opted out from the show and was to be replaced by Kajol Shrivastava however the replacement never occurred and the character of Bulbul was phased out of the series after Mrunal's departure. In August 2016, Ankit Mohan quit the show, and therefore, his character left as well. In September 2016, Arjit Taneja quit the show and was replaced by Vin Rana. In October 2016, Nikhil Arya put down his papers and was replaced by Rujut Dahiya.

Cast

Celebrities Appearance

(All appeared in the TV serial in order to promote their films)

Broadcast

Series was released on 15 April 2014 on Zee TV, the series also airs on Zee TV HD and Zee TV Asia. Show was also broadcast internationally on Channel's international distribution. It airs in U.K., U.S.A, Malaysia, Canada, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Ireland, South Africa, Indonesia, Chile, Philippines , Nigeria on channel 25 (Gotv)(where it is very popular) and Singapore on Zee TV, and also airs in Pakistan being a part of channel Geo Kahani's contract with ZEEL, the series airs a 60-minute episode plus commercials starting from Mondays through Fridays at 22:30 (PST) and tops rating chart, after Uri-Attack Geo network terminated the broadcast of Kumkum Bhagya along with all Indian shows. From April 2014, show's episodes were released on YouTube, in mid 2015, the channel stopped its full length episodes and released its episodes on their app DittoTV, a live TV feature was introduced on Ditto where Zee TV's Live streaming was available on subscription, the show also aired its live episodes in Ditto.

In late 2015, the app introduced their Before TV service where they launched Kumkum Bhagya's episodes before airing on TV, new episodes where released during 5:30am (IST), the service was available on a subscription plan. Though YouTube service was terminated, the channel still release their episodes on the Zee TV website and Zee TV app.

It was dubbed in Tamil as Iru Malargal on Polimer TV, which is well known for dubbing serials and gained high TRP Ratings. After that, ZEE Network stopped providing the dubbing rights to Polimer TV and now they are continuing it in Zee Tamizh as Iniya Iru Malrgal. It was also dubbed in Telugu as kumkuma bhagyam in Zee Telugu.

In Sri Lanka it is currently airing on Hiru TV in every week day from 7.30 to 8.00.pm titled as Adarei Man Adarei which is sinhala dubbed. In Mauritius, it is currently airing on Zee TV Africa and on MBC Digital 4 (Mauritius). In Indonesia, it is currently airing on Antv since 5 September 2016 and dubbed in Bahasa Indonesia as Lonceng Cinta. In Indonesian, it began airing on ANTV from 5 September 2016 under the title Lonceng Cinta.

Reception

Initially started with low ratings, the show climbed to Top 5 most watched shows across all GEC's and second most watched show of Zee TV after only a few weeks of its launch and was touted as the biggest fiction launch of 2014. The serial is very popular among Indian and Pakistani women.

Launched in Week 16, Kumkum Bhagya opened with 4.9 TVR and averaged to 3.3 TVR. In week 17, It fell further and averaged to 2.7 TVR. In Week 18, It improved and averaged to 3.2 TVR. In the fourth week of its launch i.e., in Week 19, it fell further and averaged to 2.8 TVR. For The Week 21, it improved a bit and averaged to 3.0 TVR but was among top 5 low rated shows on the channel. In Week 22, the show improved its ratings and rated 3.3 TVR. In Week 23, the show maintained its stability and averaged 3.2 TVR.

In Week 24, the show increased from 3.2 TVR to 3.5 TVR. In Week 25, the show jumped from 3.5 TVR to 4.9 TVR thereby being the second most watched show of the channel for the week behind Jodha Akbar. In the Week 26, the show improved its ratings further and averaged 5.7 TVR its highest ever since its launch and was again second most watched show of Zee TV. For the Week 27, the show improved further and averaged to 6.3 TVR and was amongst Top 6 Shows across all GEC's. It was constistent in Week 28 with 6.3 TVR. In Week 29, it averaged to 6.6 TVR and was amongst Top 10 Shows across all GEC's.

In week 30, the show broke all its previous records with an average ratings of 7.4 TVR and was touted as the biggest fiction launch of the year. The show also gave tough fight to GEC leader Diya Aur Baati Hum that airs at same slot on Star Plus. On the reception of the show in such a short span of time, Zee TV business head Pradeep Hejmadi announced that he considered the 'wedding track' a very important inflection point for people to gravitate to the series, believing it to be attracting increasing interest in all parameters. He also added "Each story has its own promise and people who tune in are people who are bought into those promises or are keen to explore the relationships or the characters that stand out speaking to them. We concentrated on bringing out the key inflection points for the show and it was important because it is the core promise of Kumkum Bhagya. In the thirty-first week, Kumkum Bhagya averaged to 7.5 TVR up from 7.4 TVR, taking fourth place across all GEC's and second among Zee TV shows behind the channel leader Jodha Akbar. One week later, it jumped from 415 GVMs to 453 GVMs. In the February 2015 ratings, Kumkum Bhagya entered the #1 position with Diya Aur Baati in #2.

21 August 2014 ratings showed that the channel's four shows 'Kumkum Bhagya', 'Jodha Akbar', 'Qubool Hai' and 'Doli Armaanon Ki' did exceptionally well that week. Three of them appeared inside the Top 10 as the most watched shows in India.

In August 2014, BARC ratings stated that ZEE TV was next adding 38 GVMs. It was up from 415 GVMs to 453 GVMs that week. The channel's four shows 'Kumkum Bhagya', 'Jodha Akbar', 'Qubool Hai' and 'Doli Armaanon Ki' did exceptionally well this week. Three of them appeared inside the Top 10 as the most watched shows in India. On 12 September 2014, BARC stated that 'Kumkum Bhagya' topped the ratings in India for the first time scoring 9.4, while 'Saathiya' on Star Plus and 'Jodha Akbar' on ZEE TV both recorded 8.8 and 'Diya Aur Baati Hum' was next with 7.6.

In March 2015, it was declared that the series bought highest ratings to the channel with new year, the channel scored 442 GVMs As of 17 March 2015, Barc stated that Zee TV was scored with 403GVMs As of April 2015, Kumkum Bhagya became India's most watched Hindi entertainment show with 9.5 TVT In July, the top three Shows based on Ratings were Saath Nibhana Saathiya, Kumkum Bhagya and Yeh Hai Mohabbatein series scored 5537 TVTs According to BARC ratings of September 2015, It was announced that Zee TV's two series were placed in Top 10 most watched shows list. 'Jodha Akbar' and 'Kumkum Bhagya' topped the ratings overall with 8.9 and 8.6 TVMs.

According to BARC Ratings of August 2015, Star Plus' show Saath Nibhaana Saathiya and ZEE TV's Kumkum Bhagya tie at the first slot with 3.8 TRPs. while on 6 August 2015 Kumkum Bhagya ranked with 5351 TVTs. According to Barc, show had dominated second position in November and dominated third position in December 2015 with 13.8 and 15.9 TVM respectively. On 11 December 2015, BARC ratings showed that the TV series Naagin (produced by same production) rejuvenated the channel's weekend slot while Star Plus) series Saath Nibhana Saathiya was at No.2 with 17.2 TVM, while 'Kumkum Bhagya' on ZEE TV was in third with 13.8 TVM. While on 17 December 2015, similar listing took place where most watched show on Indian television remained Naagin on Colors with 17819TVM (last week 19576TVM), followed by Saath Nibhana Saathiya on Star Plus with 15344 (last week 17293), 'Kumkum Bhagya' on ZEE TV was at third position with 13811TVM In the second week in 2016, ratings showed that the series has now dominated 4th Rank

For the whole of January, Kumkum Bhagya was the second most watched series in India after Colors's Balaji Production TV Series Naagin. According to 14 January 2016 ratings it was seen that Kumkum Bhagya had jumped to the 2nd Rank once again, the top 2 shows were Naagin and Kumkum Bhagya, Naagin pulled 19824 viewers (last week 19847), followed by Kumkum Bhagya’ with 13692 viewers. Again on 21 January 2016, the top 2 Indian TV Shows were Naagin and Kumkum Bhagya. Naagin with 18125 viewers (previous week 19824), fand ‘Kumkum Bhagya’ with 14852 viewers (previous week 13692). Next week, it was again announced that Kumkum Bhagya, the No#2 Positioned show gained 14,244 viewers while Naagin was on Top with 17,199 viewers. With the entire month, Kumkum Bhagya was viewers second choice.

In February 2016, the top two positions were again taken by ‘Naagin’ (with 19133 viewers),and Kumkum Bhagya (with 15554 viewers). With February's second week, Kumkum bhagya became the third most choice with 14.2 viewers Next week, It was shown that the series took Third position lead interns of viewers due to T20 matches, It had a viewer range of 15.7 Million viewers. In The last week of February, Series registered 14.1 Million viewers

In March, three most watched series were Naagin, Kumkum Bhagya and Yeh hai mohabatein respectively. Star plus series Yeh Hai Mohabatein dominated the 3rd Position with 11.8 million viewers, Kumkum Bhagya registered 14.4 million viewers. In second week of March it registered 12.5 million viewers. In second and third weeks it registered a viewership of 12.07 million and 13.1 million impressions. The entire month Kumkum Bhagya dominated the second spot on Top ten shows of 2016. The Next month Ye Hai Mohabbatein dominated the second spot, Kumkum Bhagya took the third place scoring viewership of 10.6 million impressions followed by 11.0 million. With last of July, the viewership raised to 11.5 million impressions (urban + rural), next month the series further raised to 13.5 million impressions (urban + rural) when the production decided to introduce Tannu's DNA report storyline.