So I was searching for Ekta on Anurag and Prena, and I came across this book where Ekta talks about her shows and other things the book has. Anyway on KZK this is what I found:
Being asked how she conceptualized Kasauti, Ekta K reply was as follows: “unrequited love between by Prena and Anurag. I was inspired by a real life incident. A friend of mine ditched his girlfriend to marry as his parents’ wishes. I was disturbed. Why couldn’t the other woman be positive? Prena was born. Why can’t the wife be negative? Komolika was born.” Ekta’s observations echoed Kejriwal who said that “ Star TV directed Ekta Kapoor to make a passionate love story.
Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=agw0m5m9oS8C&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=ekta+kapoor+on+anurag+and+prerna&source=bl&ots=tSp8gxWq1X&sig=ACfU3U1z04XYBCf3qEo2-EN0w5kYyzqu_Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjPnsaIzpnjAhXuQ98KHZ20D9I4PBDoATAFegQIChAB#v=onepage&q=ekta%20kapoor%20on%20anurag%20and%20prerna&f=false
And in this article many things are said, but what I found funny was how Star initially shot down the idea as they couldn’t fathom how a story about two people in love would last more than 50 episodes as said in this article.