Kundali Bhagya


Kundali Bhagya is an Indian romantic drama television series that premiered 12 July 2017 on Zee TV. Produced by Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms, it is a spin-off series of Kumkum Bhagya and stars Shraddha Arya Dheeraj Dhoopar and Manit Joura It had the largest weekday Hindi fiction launch across all GECs in 2017.

Plot

Preeta meets the Luthra family when she becomes a physiotherapist to their matriarch whose younger grandson Karan shares a conflicting relation with Preeta while the elder grandson Rishabh shares a cordial relation with her and slowly starts developing feelings for her. Rishabh is not convinced with the idea of marriage. When Preeta convinces Rishabh, he agrees to marry Sherlyn Khurana in an apparent misunderstanding, assuming it to be Preeta. Sherlyn realizes his affections for Preeta and vows to get Preeta out of her life. After Rishabh and Sherlyn get engaged, Preeta realises Sherlyn isn't the girl everyone thinks. She finds out Sherlyn has a boyfriend and confides her doubts to Karan.
At first, Karan belittles and calls Preeta a gold digger, but because the matter concerns Rishabh, he checks for evidence himself and is convinced of the truth. Karan and Preeta join forces in their mission to save Rishabh from Sherlyn and their alliance slowly blossoms into friendship, then to love.
Preeta's engagement gets fixed with Sherlyn's boyfriend Prithvi Malhotra. Karan and Rishabh are both uneasy with Prithvi and soon realizes that he isn't right for her. Karan and Preeta try innumerable times to get evidence against Sherlyn. He and Rishabh try to convince Preeta and her family about Prithvi.
However, despite all the efforts by Preeta at Rishabh and Sherlyn's wedding to actually stop it from happening, Rishabh and Sherlyn get married. Karan vowed that if Rishabh's life was ruined by Preeta, he would seek revenge. He humiliatingly drags Preeta out of the Luthra house after Rishabh's wedding.
Karan believes that Preeta is a gold-digger and has taken money from Sherlyn to ruin Rishabh's life. Karan humiliates Preeta after Rishabh's wedding and drags her out of the Luthra house. Rishabh although tries to talk sense into him but he doesn't listen. At Preeta's wedding with Prithvi, Karan does a groom swap and marries her without her consent. He convinces her and her entire family that his reason for marrying Preeta was love. It is revealed Karan married Preeta just for taking revenge as he believes Preeta betrayed him by joining hands with Sherlyn. He leaves Preeta after the wedding. He gets engaged to Mahira Khanna to humiliate Preeta further.
Karan although initially reluctant to marry Mahira agrees to the proposal once he see's that Preeta has sent an alimony notice, which further cements his belief that Preeta is really after his money. The notice in reality was sent by Sherlyn. In order to take further revenge Karan humiliates Preeta a few more time in different wedding functions he has with Mahira. Rishabh tries to convince many a times that Preeta is not the type of person who is after money, but Karan has no trust on her in the matter.

Cast

Main

Development

Talking about introducing a spinoff of a popular show on a primetime, Deepak Rajadhyaksha, the Deputy Business Head of Zee TV, says, "Zee TV has always strived to experiment with formats and bring its viewers unique and fresh content. After the success of Kasamh Se, Pavitra Rishta, Jodha Akhbar, Kumkum Bhagya and Brahmarakshas, we are extremely happy to associate yet again with Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms to bring an innovative narrative Kundali Bhagya. It introduces a new set of characters in an all-new world and will replace our hit primetime show, Ek Tha Raja Ek Thi Rani, which was not only a strong differentiator but met with an overwhelming response and has had a glorious run of two years."
On this, Kapoor said, "Over the last two decades, Balaji Telefilms in collaboration with Zee TV has created some great content. With our new show, Kundali Bhagya, we present a first-of-its-kind concept, an all-new interesting and engrossing show that emerges from the sub-plots of an already existing show. We will introduce Pragya’s sisters Preeta and Shrishti and the Luthra brothers Karan and Rishabh. We’re hopeful that the audience will fall in love with each of these endearing characters as we have gone through hundreds of auditions before locking the impressive young talent. The writing for this show is extremely strong in terms of characterisation and the engaging screenplay should leave audiences hooked at the end of every episode."
The production and airing of the show was halted indefinitely in late March 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak in India. Because of the outbreak, the filming of television series and films was halted on 19 March 2020 and expected to resume on 1 April 2020 but could not and the series was last broadcast on 24 March 2020 when the remaining episodes were aired. After three months, the production and filming of the series resumed on 29 June 2020 and airing to resume from 13 June 2020.

Reception

Response

In its debut week, it was the fourth-most-watched television show in the twenty eighth week of 2017 in India with 5796 urban and 4064 rural impressions.
In the thirty-second week of 2017, the soap opera became the second most-watched television show in India with 10498 impressions. In week 33 2017, the soap opera saw a dip in the ratings thereby recording 10097 impressions but still was the third most-watched television show in India. In week 34, 2017 the soap opera further fell to 9691 impressions but still was the fifth most watched show during the week.
In Week 37, 2017, the soap opera showed a jump in ratings and recorded its highest since debut, 10940 impressions; thereby becoming the second most-watched show in India for the week, the first being its sister show Kumkum Bhagya. In week 40, 2017, the soap opera recorded 11216 impressions and continued to be the second most watched show in India for the week.
In November, Kundali Bhagya took the top spot and maintained it in November and December 2017. The show topped TRP charts in January 2018 with a staggering 7889 viewership in urban markets. The show got 12.5 million viewership in all India. Due to continuous increases in ratings and topping the charts, the show became the biggest weekday launch since 2017 by Balaji Telefilms.
After topping the charts continuously for six months with minor exceptions wherein the show was among the top three most-watched shows; its first spot was taken by Colors' Naagin .
In week 22 of 2019, the show topped the ratings charts with 7122 impressions in urban ratings and 5306 rural. It was beaten in urban ratings by Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai since week 28 of 2018 pushing Kundali Bhagya to second place. However, it took back its first place in week 38 of 2019, pushing Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai to second position.

Awards and nominations