Ektaa Kapoor: 2008 was my worst professional year
In a new interview, Ektaa Kapoor names 2008 as her worst professional year and shares the lessons she took from that slump.
Ektaa Kapoor has built one of Indian entertainment’s most recognizable careers—from daily soaps that defined appointment viewing to films and a streaming slate. But in a new conversation with Ranveer Allahbadia, she admitted the middle of that journey was anything but smooth. Reflecting as she marks three decades in the industry, Kapoor named 2008 as her lowest professional point.
What went wrong in 2008
Asked about that year, she was direct. “2008 was the worst year for me career-wise,” Kapoor said, adding that nothing seemed to go right and that the slump also took a toll on her mental health because she struggled to process it.
The confession is notable because 2008 sits inside a career that had already produced Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii and Kasautii Zindagii Kay. By her own account, the problem was not a lack of past hits. It was how she was working in the present. She told Allahbadia she had “fewer things on paper” that year and assumed relationships with companies would survive staff changes. They did not always.
The reset: paper, people and humility
Kapoor framed the rough patch as a forced education. Her advice was practical enough to be a founder’s or freelancer’s checklist:
- Put it on paper. She said she now refuses to work without written terms.
- Build relationships beyond success. Companies can change professionals, and people should want to work with you through good and bad work.
- Keep credibility separate from form. Creative output may swing, but credibility and ethics should stay constant.
She also credited mentors she met along the way, including Uday Shankar, with teaching her work ethic, teamwork and humility. Her bluntest warning for young professionals: “Overconfidence is not swag; it’s stupidity.”
Kapoor kept the 2008 professional low separate from her toughest mental patch. She said 2021-2022 hit her hardest mentally, when COVID-era isolation, new motherhood and the scale of loss around her became overwhelming.
Why it matters now
The reflection arrives at a full-circle moment. Kapoor continues to produce through Balaji Telefilms, and the reality series Lock Upp recently announced its second season. For a new generation of creators, the useful lesson is not that a hitmaker had a bad year. It is that she treated the bad year as evidence about her process, not her identity. That distinction—between a dip in output and a collapse in reputation—is what she says kept her credible long after the hits stopped arriving on schedule.
Source: Hindustan Times
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