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 Indian "serial" (a soap opera) in Hindi that revolves around the lives of the fictitious Virani family. It is produced by Balaji Telefilms.

This serial is produced by Ekta Kapoor, daughter of famous filmstar, Jeetendra. It is said that she took a vow at the holy Balaji Temple in South India for the success of this serial, and her wish was granted.

Originally, the serial was supposed to be called, Amma (Grandmother/Mother), but was revised to the current title by the suggestion of the Dress Designer.

Claim to fame

The airing of the serial was in 2000 on the same day as KBC or Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who wants to be a Millionare?), but the show lasted longer than KBC. The success was prominent, and all the actors in the serial became famous and were the center of attention for millions of viewers, not only in India, but also in Pakistan, Canada, United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, Kenya and New Zealand with Hindi viewers.

The TRP (Television Ratings) were at an all time high and broke all previous records set by all other prominent serials in the history of Indian Television.

Original Plot

The story is set in Mumbai focused on the Virani Family that hails from Gujarat and quite successful and well-known in the Bombay Industrial world. The story is focused on Tulsi Virani, daughter of a family priest of the Viranis, who marries the eldest son of the family, Mihir through eloping. All the members except, Govardhan Virani, the patriach and Amba Virani, the matriarch were 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 Thakorji, an incarnation 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 and helping them in times of trouble and sharing their joy in time of happiness. Along the road, many new characters are shown, with elaborate weddings for each and affairs that are eventual discovered. The archnemesis of Tulsi outside the household is Payal who was engaged to Mihir before the marriage of Tulsi and Mihir. She always comes and destroys the peace in the household and instigates others, especially Savita, to boot Tulsi out of the house and get herself married with 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 being, acting pregnant, which was later discovered to be false. 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 and gives him to her sister-in-law, Arti since she is barren and cannot have a child and yearns for one. Due to jealousy and animosity, she runs away with the child and her husband, Kiran, younger brother of Mihir to Australia and all are 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.

First 20 year Leap

After the leap, many new characters come and the drama occurs with the new generation with the return of Gautam from Australia as a spoilt kid, who is turned nice by the teachings of Tulsi and the marriage of all the sons and the marriage of Shobha, the only daughter of Tulsi with Vishal, the son of Payal Mehra, the originial archnemesis of Tulsi. The drama takes place with that and the return of Kiran and Arti, who are divorced and have a daughter, Karishma who is addicted to drugs. She is reformed by living with the family. Then it is shown that Mihir and Mandira had an affair over the years, which has produced an out-of-wedlock child named Karan, who comes to India from Australia and takes revenge on the Viranis for not supporting his mother, Mandira.

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Mandira on the side is using her son, Karan as a weapon to destroy the others in the family and get Mihir forever. Problems also occur for the sons and their wives. Including one bitter love-square culminating in the extremely amicable divorce of Ganga and Gautam (Gautam had never wanted to marry her in the first place but Tulsi inadvertently coerced him by tying up his finances and beggaring him), where Ganga eventually marries Gautam's younger brother Sahil, and Gautam finally marries his beloved Teesha with whom he has been having a live-in relationship through most of the duration of his marriage to Ganga. Teesha's warmth and caring endears her to the Viranis, establishing a 'sisters' relationship with Ganga (who is now Sahil's wife), and also assiduosly but unsuccessfully trying to get her adored parents-in-law Tulsi and Mihir reconciled. Then Teesha dies in a car accident engineered by Mandira, who tries to kill Tulsi, but kills her accidentally. Since Teesha was in her third trimester, Gautam loses both his love and his unborn daughter, and when Ganga and Tulsi find out that Mandira was specifically trying to kill Tulsi and not just a couple of Viranis, they don't tell anyone. Gautam is livid when Karan claims Mandira was as innocent a victim of the 'accident' as Teesha. As he and Karan get increasingly bloodthirsty towards each other as they each champion the goodness of their respective mothers Tulsi and Mandira, Tulsi forswears him from killing Karan. Gautam then tricks Karan's support and love Damini into marrying him. But he feels guilty for parting her from her love, so he tries to reunite her and Karan. But Damini decides to stick with the marriage, and she and Gautam gradually grow to care for each other, and she and Karan become friends and confidantes.

Then, Karan learns of his mistake and accepts Tulsi as his mother, since she was the one who taught him love and the love of a mother. The serial unfolds as a rift between Tulsi and Mihir occurs and tensions flow into the family. Later on, there is the revelation of Harsh, their youngest son, not being the biological son of Tulsi and being a product of rape of Kesar (Tulsi's cousin raped by her former friend and lover Raj Bhasin), and his attempt at suicide, which is unsuccessful. Tulsi comes to know that she has another son named Ansh, who was brought up by a gangster named Aditya Gujral and comes into the family to use Tulsi as matchmaker to get married to his obsession Nandini, the love of Karan, and then is later killed by Tulsi for having raped Nandini and arranging the murder of Vishal. Shobha gives birth to a son and marries her husband's inadvertent murderer, Abhishek through the pressure of her mother-in-law, Payal. There is a dramatic court case fought by Meera, Tulsi's best friend who is in love with Mihir and Tulsi goes to jail for 3 years for the murder of her son, Ansh.

Nandini and Karan get married and because of the rape, Nandini gives birth to a girl called Bhoomi and goes into coma. Meanwhile, to support Karan and take care of the newborn, Karan marries his best friend, Tanya. Later, she leaves as Nandini comes out of coma and according to doctors, cannot be given any bad news, or else she will die. Tanya on the contrary is pregnant. Tulsi comes out of jail and the family ignores her.

Gautam and Damini have twins. Since Ganga protected Damini during her pregnancy and lost her own child, Damini gives one of her sons to Ganga against Gautam's wishes. He then gets emotionally blackmailed to agree since Ganga is barren. But when Ganga has her own child and Gautam asks for his son back since his other son has Multiple Sclerosis, everyone including Damini tells him he is wrong and should be happy to stay uncle to his own son. He has lost his unborn daughter, his younger son is incurably ill, and his healthy son is to be reared as his nephew. He gets mad and another court case regarding the custody happens after some time. Meanwhile, Gautam leaves home and Mandira comes back and kidnaps him and blackmails Tulsi and dictates her to do some horrible things to the family, otherwise, she will kill Gautam. One of the most important things was to kick Karan out of the house. Tulsi does that, but to her surprise, Karan knows and goes to Mandira to finish her shady business and is successful.

In the progression, Mandira goes to jail for 7 years. Gautam loses his backbone, accepts that his mother can do no wrong and returns to the family as one of her defending coterie. Tulsi gets cancer. Everyone is sad that Tulsi will die, but that is changed when it was not cancer, but a coughing problem and all are relieved. Also, Shobha finds out that Abhishek was the person who killed her first husband, Vishal and leaves home. In this process, Harsh marries Mohini, who has one sole purpose of marrying, to acquire the wealth of the Viranis, she is shown as a comic person with her new styles and evil ways. She tries to capture the wealth, but is stopped in her tracks through the works of her mother-in-law, Tulsi.

Gujral's Back!!!!

Gujral reappears and starts to threaten the Viranis. He is murdered in the party and the entire family is at the scene of the murder and each member is suspected. Karan accepts his guilt and goes to jail. However, later findings point the crime to another person. Tulsi, with the help from Tanya figure out the culprit and suspect each member of the household. In addition, Nandini finds out that Tanya and Karan are married and they are expecting a child. Nandini also finds out that she is pregnant. When Karan is on the path of execution, Nandini accepts her crime and all are shocked. She goes to jail for 14 years. Tanya moves in and takes her place (after being persuaded to by Nandini) at the house, against her own wishes.

After the entire fiasco is over, Meera gets upset and plans with Mandira to take over the family and get Mihir to love her, as she wants that. Mandira is shocked and vows to help her. Meanwhile, jailed Nandini encourages Karan and the Viranis to look for a certain 'Shraddha' whose name is written in Gujral's will for quite a large sum of his money.

Shraddha?

Shraddha, 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 has a son (Eklavya) who, when she dies from a heart attack, is taken with Tulsi and Tanya to Shantinektan, where not everyone believes he is Ansh's son. In particular Savita. She claims that Tulsi has just picked up any old kid and bought him home. After one accident, where Eklavya accidntally pushes Bhoomi, causing her to bang her head on the marble floor and have severe bleeding, that (very laughbly and stupidly, because this is really inacurate enough to laugh at) they have to get a C.A.T. scan done. Savita now hates Tulsi even more for bringing Eklavya home. So after a huge family fight, usual in these soaps, Savita wants to leave, she says either she or Eklavya will stay here. But Tulsi says she'll leave with Eklavya, who everyone loves, other than Savita.

On the morning of leaving, Tulsi tells Meera that she is on to her plan! That she knows, that Meera is using the help of Mandira to get to here one desire, which Tulsi calls "Meera's childishness" which is Mihir. Meera is now worried about what to do. Meanwhile, when Tulsi is leaving, she is stopped by Gautam who shows legal documents to the family that he has now adopted Eklavya, and that he is the legal father of Eklavya now. Savita is gobsmacked and furious.

Think that's the happy ending? Don't bet on it. Another Bigger Crisis is About to Arise

Planning with Mandira in the jail by Tulsi. Tulsi is astonished and remains calm. After some series, Savita joins hands with Meera and supports all her decisions and goes against Tulsi. On the other hand, Shobha gets involved in politics and gets shot during her stump speech. Savita gets enraged and cuts all her ties with Tulsi, as to Tulsi supported Shobha's decision. Meera takes advantage of this situation and turns the table. But, Shobha's ex-husband, Abhishek gets proof of Meera and Mandira together and blackmails her for money and uses her to finance his business.

Meera gets frustrated and complexed. One day, Savita goes ballastic and starts to yell at Tulsi for controlling the house and turning all against her. She leaves the house and gives her a curse. All are shocked. Savita lives at her friend's hosue and all attempts to persuade her go futile. One day, when she vists the jail to convince Mandira of stopping her plots, she sees both Mandira and Meera plotting together. She is stunned and vows to reveal the truth. Fear of being exposed, Mandira and Meera plan to kill her and they are partly successful. Savita gets into a bad accident and the majority of her bones are broken. Also, her brain has been damaged. Tulsi sees this and both reconcile in an emotional scene and learns of the truth. While the entire family is in London for a wedding, Tulsi learns that Savita is going to be in the same vegetative state for the rest of her life.

Savita cannot bear her pain and asks Tulsi to perform euthanasia. Tulsi performs the euthanasia, in the absence of Mihir and the rest of the family. Tulsi loves her mother in law, but does so to give her the salvation that Savita pleads to Tulsi for. The family returns from London and are devastated to find Savita dead. Meera takes advantage of the situation and blames it on Tulsi. Thus starts a massive court drama where Meera accuses Tulsi for Savita's death. By the end, Tulsi wins. Meanwhile, Mohini is pregnant, but with her brother-in-law Sahil's baby. Ganga finds this out, and is shocked! However, Mohini made this drama up only for 5 crores rupees. Ganga however thinks that this is all real and she tells everyone at Ganga and Sahil's anniversary. Sahil is heart broken and gets into an affair wiith his secretary Tripti. Mewanwhile, Meera instigates Mihir against Tulsi and makes him believe that Tulsi killed Savita even though Savita didn't want to die. Mihir believes her and thus kicks Tulsi out of the house. Tulsi is on her way to move to Haridwar forever, when her bus collides and has an accident. Also Ganga leaves the house as Sahil comes into the house along with Tripti.Tulsi actually met a friend in the bus to Haridwar who is very sick. Tulsi accompanies her to the hospital and is saved. Meanwhile Meera tries to marry Mihir. During one such occasions, Tulsi sees them together and thinks that Mihir has forgotten her.She goes to Haridwar and attempts suicide. There she finds an abandoned baby girl and decides to raise her.

The Future For Kyunki: 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. Kyunki, 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 (Lakshya), son of Sahil & Ganga or 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 lovable and geek Joydeep, a distant relative to the family of Sahil's family, now adopted by Sahil.

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

Criticism

The serial has received and survived some tough times due to the high level of criticism from both viewers and TV critics. One of the most important is the age. Amba 'Baa' Virani has seen her great-grandchildren's children and her supposed age is above 100, and this brings attention that the age factor is being stretched beyond an already distant point. Actually, the latest time-leap has had the latest generation of 'elders' sincerely trying to look middle-aged. Except for Shilpa Saklani's 'Ganga' who looks somber enough in regular scenes, but gets outlandishly sexy and youthful whenever she has to appear for a party. Sartorially young enough to look like her sons' peer.

Clothing of the characters is another hot topic. 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. Only Damini fits unfailingly into the housewife mould sartorially, combining a housewife's necessary simplicity with a cosmopolitan understated but unmistakable elegance. 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. For example, the value of each contract that has been discussed in the serial has never been less than 50 crore and that is not very common in India.

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.

The series started of 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 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.

But the bottomline is that, all these shortcomings notwithstanding, 'Kyunki...' is a fictional serial, with a 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.

Cast

The following are the prominent members of the Virani Family:

Tulsi (Mihir) Virani -- Smriti Malhotra Irani Mihir (Mansukh) Virani -- Amar Upadhyay, Inder Kumar, Ronit Roy Govardhan 'Baapuji' Virani -- Sudhir Dalvi Amba 'Baa' (Govardhan) Virani -- Sudha Shivpuri Savita (Mansukh) Virani -- Apara Mehta Gayatri (Jamnadas) Virani -- Kamalika Guhathakurta Daksha (Himmat) Virani -- Ketki Dave Mansukh (Govardhan) Virani -- Shakti Singh Himmat (Govardhan) Virani -- Jamnadas (Govardhan) Virani -- Kiran (Mansukh) Virani -- Jiten Lalwani Aarti Patel (Kiran) Virani Patel -- Eva Grover, Rushali Karishma Dey nee (Kiran) Virani -- Gautam (Mihir) Virani -- Sumeet Sachdev Teesha (Gautam) Virani nee Mehta -- Ashlesha Sawant Damini (Gautam) Virani nee Khanna -- Riva Babbar, Ravee Gupta, Riva Babbar Hemant (Jamnadas) Virani -- Shakti Anand Pooja (Hemant) Virani -- Prachi Shah Sahil (Hemant) Virani -- Sandeep Baswana, Amit Sareen, Sandeep Baswana Ganga Joshi (Gautam) Virani (Sahil) Virani Joshi aka Mehta -- Shilpa Saklani Agnihotri Karan (Mihir) Virani -- Hiten Tejwani Nandini Thakkar (Ansh) Virani (Karan) Virani -- Gauri Pradhan Tejwani Ansh (Mihir) Virani aka (Aditya) Gujral, Eklavya (Ansh) Virani -- Akashdeep Sehgal Shobha (Vishal) Mehra nee (Mihir) Virani -- Ritu Choudhry Seth Vishal (Pratap) Mehra -- Rohit Bakshi Payal (Pratap) Mehra nee Parikh -- Jaya Bhattacharya Sejal (Anand) Gandhi nee (Jamnadas) Virani -- Khyati Khandke Indira 'Indu' (Anand) Gandhi -- Karishma Tanna Chirag (Himmat) Virani -- Hussain Kuwajerwala Tanya (Karan) Virani nee Malhotra -- Rakshanda Khan Mohini (Harsh) Virani -- Tasneem Sheikh Meera Singhania -- Shubhaavi K. Mandira Kapadia (Kiran) Virani (Aditya) Gujral -- Mandira Bedi, Achint Kaur Maansingh Chauhan -- Chetan Hansraj Suhasi Virani -- Pooja Ghai Rawal Tripti (Sahil) Virani -- Suvarna Lakshya (Sahil) Virani -- Pulkit Samrat Bhoomi (Karan) Virani -- Reshmi Ghosh Manthan (Karan) Virani -- Amit Tandon Krishna Tulsi -- Mouni Roy Nakul Virani -- Naman Shaw Joydeep --
1. Archita (Harsh) Virani --

Change of Cast

Some of the important characters in the serial were changed some times due to their resignation. Most of the famous being Sahil Virani, Damini Virani, Mandira Kapadia, Govardhan Virani and even the most important character, Mihir Virani. Mihir Virani's cast was changed three times, since it was hard to find a replacement for the original character, Mihir played by Amar Upadhyay that the viewers would approve of.

Mandira is now played by Achint Kaur. Tripti is played by Suvarna.

As of June 2006, there has been a major reshuffle in the main characters of the serail. The timeline of the serial has been pushed forward by 20 years, and the main character Tulsi is supposed to be slowly replaced by another character who goes by the name Krishna Tulsi. Krishna Tulsi is played by a newcomer Mouni Roy. Not much is known about this individual.

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.
1. 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 most favorite character, Tulsi.