Kundali Bhagya

Kundali Bhagya
File:Kundali 2017.jpg
Created by	Ekta Kapoor
Developed by	Ekta Kapoor
Written by	Story Anil Nagpal Kavita Nagpal Screenplay Anil Nagpal Mrinal Tripathi Dialogues Anamik
Directed by	Sameer Kulkarni
Creative directors	Creative Producer Tanusri Dasgupta Shaalu
Starring	Shraddha Arya Dheeraj Dhoopar Manit Joura Anjum Fakih Abhishek Kapur Supriya Shukla Sanjay Gagnani
Theme music composer	Lalit Sen Nawab Arzoo
Opening theme	Kundali Bhagya
Country of origin	India
Original language	Hindi
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	223 as on May 18, 2018
Production
Producers	Ekta Kapoor Shobha Kapoor
Production locations	Mumbai, Maharastra, India
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	Approx. 22 minutes
Production company	Balaji Telefilms
Original release
Network	Zee TV
Release	12 July 2017 (2017-07-12) – present
Related
Kumkum Bhagya

Kundali Bhagya is an Indian romantic drama television series which broadcasts on Zee TV. The soap opera premiered on 12 July 2017 and stars Shraddha Arya, Dheeraj Dhoopar and Manit Joura as lead actors whereas Anjum Fakih and Abhishek Kapur plays the parallel leads. Kundali Bhagya is a spin off of Kumkum Bhagya. It became the biggest weekday launch by Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Telefilms since 2016. The show is a big hit due to its story line and Dheeraj - Shraddha's onscreen chemistry. The show has consistently topped the ratings chart since its inception.

Plot

The show narrates the story of two sisters Preeta (Shraddha Arya) and Srishti (Anjum Fakih) and their attempt to reunite with their mother Sarla (Supriya Shukla) and the dynamics which lead to their acquaintance with the rich and famous "Luthra" family. The elder son of Luthra family, Rishabh Luthra (Manit Joura), owns a celebrity management firm which manages rockstar Abhi Mehra’s (Shabbir Ahluwalia) musical and cricketer Karan Luthra's cricket career. His younger brother Karan Luthra (Dheeraj Dhoopar) has an effortless swag and charm that makes him an unabashed Casanova, a playboy because of the star cricketer celebrity status he owns.

The journey of sparks begins as the paths of Preeta and Srishti intersect with Karan, Rishabh and Sameer's (Abhishek Kapur). Preeta is a physiotherapist who gets hired to work for the grandmother of the Luthra family. Srishti bags a job in event management giving up her dream of becoming a model and is hired by Kareena Luthra (Usha Bachani) to manage various functions at the Luthra House. Srishti is extremely fond of Karan and claims to be his biggest fan but on the other hand Preeta and Karan hate each other but as the show progresses, they slowly start getting attracted to each other as they both begin to understand each other. Rishabh, on the other hand, has a deep one-sided love for Preeta. A love triangle is shown between Rishabh, Preeta and Karan. Kareena Luthra absolutely hates Preeta and thinks that she is trying to seduce Luthra boys for money and during her daughter's engagement, she plots jewellery theft and blames Preeta but Rishabh finds the missing piece of jewellery and saves her. Also Karan once saves Preeta from the local goons who tried to misbehave with her, thus, becoming a hero in the eyes of her mother and sister.

On being convinced by Preeta herself, Rishabh gets engaged to Sherlyn (Ruhi Chaturvedi), never revealing his feelings for Preeta. He doesn't break it off because he doesn't want to upset his mother who dreams of seeing him married. Sherlyn, on the other hand, develops an intense dislike for Preeta and tries to ruin her because she views Preeta as a threat to her marriage. She even ruins her engagement by poisoning the food served at the party that was held at Preeta's mother Sarla's Kumkum Bhagya Marriage Hall just to insult her in front of Luthra family. Sarla gets arrested but is acquitted by Karan's help because he realises that the allegations made by Preeta against Sherlyn were true. Preeta had come to know that Sherlyn was cheating on Rishabh.

Srishti and Sameer, who is cousin of Karan and Rishab, are shown to start falling for each other.

Sherlyn is still in a relationship with her ex-husband Prithvi(Sanjay Gagnani), who happens to be a prospective groom for Preeta. He is only marrying Preeta to keep her away from Rishabh so that Sherlyn may marry without fearing her. They both have a deep and old grudge against Rishabh for unknown reasons and are plotting to ruin him. Preeta and Karan, on realizing the real motives of Sherlyn and her being in a relationship with someone else, work closely together to expose her in front of Rishabh and become best friends.

Karan and Preeta are falling for each other but both of them are unaware of this. Karan is upset for Preeta getting married to Prithvi because of his unrealised feelings and he also thinks there's something fishy with Prithvi's too well mannered and respectful attitude. He, unknowingly, drops hints of his likeness but Preeta is unable to understand. Both Karan and Preeta are interrogated by others many times about their infactuation with each other but they laugh it off every time yet they cannot help thinking about each other. Both of them are always arguing, calling each other names yet holds special feelings for each other but Rishabh doesn't take their bantering too seriously and is unaware of their deep feelings for each other.

Preeta and Prithvi's wedding rituals move forward, and during their Roka, Janki, who is a servant of the Arora house, overhears Prithvi and Sherlyn talking and catches them red-handed. Before she can tell anyone anything, Prithvi and Sherlyn plan to murder her and after hitting her on head, trap her in the kitchen and set the marriage hall on fire. Preeta gets caught in the fire, while everyone else escapes, Karan and Rishab quickly jump forward to save her. Miraculously, all three are rescued from the fire. Janki is brought out alive but suffers from short term memory loss.

Karan soon comes to know about Prithvi being involved with someone else and tries his best to tell Preeta and her family but Prithvi slyly proves Karan wrong and manages to come out as the innocent one. Prithvi also traps Karan in drug peddling case but Preeta brings Karan out of jail by getting herself arrested confessing that it was she who was selling drugs at the club, only in order to save Karan. She is later saved by Pragya, her elder sister and Karan. Karan, who had been selected for One Day International Cricket, is out of the team because he had been in the jail. A few days later Janki's memory revives and she pays Prithvi a visit to warn him that she is going to expose him in front of everybody. Scared, Prithvi and Sherlyn decide to murder her. They first hit her and then try to kill her by running her over with a car but fail. At hospital, Luthras and Preeta's family realize that Janki has been paralysed due to the accident. Prithvi and Sherlyn are relieved to know this.

To avoid any further complication, Prithvi is planning to marry Preeta as soon as possible because he knows both Karan and Rishabh have strong feelings for Preeta and are on a mission to expose him and they will never let Preeta marry him. Sherlyn is also following the same tactics with Rishabh. Karan challenges Prithvi to reveal his true identity and will do anything to call off his wedding with Preeta. He catches Prithvi with Sherlyn in a shopping mall and tells Preeta and Rishabh that Prithvi is having an affair with Sherlyn but once again he is outsmarted by Sherlyn and proved wrong as Sherlyn manages to escape in time.

Luthra family and Arora family plan to spend one weekend together in a bungalow purchased by Rishabh for his mother Rakhi(Anisha Hinduja) where Prithvi is also invited. During the weekend he challenges Karan for a cricket match. Karan accepts the challenge and in order to break his confidence, Prithvi plans to break the one bat that Karan is absolutely fond of and thinks it to be his lucky charm. On finding his bat broken, Karan immediately realises that is Prithvi's plot to defeat him. On the last ball of the match Karan hits a six and to catch the ball Prithvi is standing right near the boundary but fails to catch it and while all of this transpires, the ball hits his face and he gets injured, thus, avenging Karan's insult. Prithvi leaves annoyed and Preeta is very worried about him. Karan agrees to go with her in the middle of the night to find him. In the midway, their car breaks down and they are forced to seek shelter in a deserted place. Karan and Preeta try to scare each other by turning into ghosts and have good time. Both of them feel something for each other but are not ready to accept it. On the other hand, Prithvi is back home and creates a ruckus in the house demanding an explanation from all the family members of Karan and Preeta's whereabouts. He alleges that Karan is fond of Preeta and doesn't leave a chance to spend time with her. Hearing this, everybody admonishes him for his low thinking but he stands his grounds. When Preeta and Karan return home, Karan cooks up a fake story to placate all the family members and doesn't let them think ill of Preeta. Sarla is not happy with Prithvi's behaviour and decides to call off the wedding of Prithvi and Preeta but Rakhi stops her from doing so telling that people would think that something is wrong with Preeta as she already had been rejected once by a man from her hometown, Nasik. Sarla understands and forgives Prithvi.

Prithvi is determined to ruin Karan and says that he would do all that he can do accomplish his goal. He confronts Karan and once again challenges him that he would get engaged to Preeta in a few days and he(Karan) would not be able to stop him and in return Karan challenges Prithvi that he would not let Preeta destroy her life and no engagement would take place as he wouldn't let anything like that happen. He will expose him and this time he will be successful.

During all this, Sameer learns from Karan that Srishti is in love with him as Srishti had herself told so to Karan when she was under influence of drugs during holi celebrations. When Kritika(Twinkle R Vasisht) asks Sameer if he loves Srishti, he outright denies and Srishti overhears his conversation with his sister. She believes that Sameer doesn't love her so she too starts ignoring him, thus, confusing Sameer who thinks that she loves him.

Rishabh is urged by his mother that he must ask Karan to be friends with Prithvi and to hold no grudges against him. Rishabh agrees with his mother and he sets up a meeting where reluctantly Karan and Prithvi shake hands but they still hate each other. In the same restaurant, Karan meets Prithvi's ex-girlfriend, Tapsee, who is very eager to win Prithvi back. Capitalising on this opportunity, Karan promises Tapsee that he will help her to get her ex-boyfriend back. He plans Prithvi and Tapsee's meeting but Sherlyn's sudden arrival ruins his plans to defeat Prithvi in the challenge. This makes Tapsee very agitated and she tells Karan that she doesn't want Prithvi anymore and this makes Karan upset. Next day, Prithvi arrives at the Luthra house to give invitation of his engagement and makes sure that Karan is reminded that how badly is he going to lose. When Karan learns that it is her aunt Kareena's birthday, he makes arrangements for a quick party before Preeta's engagement and invites Tapsee so that she meets Prithvi and seduces him in the privacy of the room. This will give him an opportunity to show Preeta Prithvi's real identity and she will break things off with him. Prithvi cooks up a story and convinces Preeta that he is innocent, leaving Karan annoyed.

Preeta's engagement day arrives and Karan invites Tapsee in helping him to expose Prithvi. She tells Karan that Prithvi is not a bad guy but Karan asks her to come to the function and see for herself. Tapsee agrees. Tapsee takes Prithvi in a room and demands that he calls this wedding off with Preeta but Prithvi refuses and tells her that he is only playing with her. Tapsee learns about Prithvi's real identity and threatens to expose him. Prithvi stops her and in order to know what she and Karan had plotted against him, he kills her by strangling her. Karan plays the video that he had secretly recorded of Prithvi and Tapsee in the bedroom during the function and everyone starts questioning Prithvi. On the other hand, Sherlyn is trying to hide Tapsee in the cupboard because she had just fainted when Prithvi had strangled her but Tapsee regains consciousness and runs off to tell about Prithvi and Sherlyn. She is threatened by Sherlyn midway that if she speaks anything, her mother's life will be in danger to which Tapsee relents. When she appears before all the guests, she lies saying that Prithvi is innocent, it was she herself who was trying to woo him. Karan is once again outsmarted but has not lost hope. He asks Preeta that if she truly is his friend, then, she would not engage him. Preeta is in dilemma and much to Karan's displeasure, she engages Prithvi.

Cast

Main cast

• Shraddha Arya as Preeta Raghuvir Arora, Younger sister of Pragya and Bulbul, elder than Srishti. Rishabh and Karan's love interest presently engaged to Prithvi (2017–)
• Dheeraj Dhoopar as Karan Mahesh Luthra, Rishabh's younger brother and Preeta's love interest (2017–)
• Manit Joura as Rishabh Mahesh Luthra, Karan's elder brother presently engaged to Sherlyn (2017–)
• Anjum Fakih as Srishti Raghuvir Arora, youngest sister of Preeta, Pragya and Bulbul. Sameer's love interest (2017–)
• Abhishek Kapur as Sameer Luthra, Rishabh, Karan, Ruchika and Kritika's cousin and Srishti's love interest (2017–)

Recurring cast

• Supriya Shukla as Sarla Raghuvir Arora, Preeta, Pragya, Srishti and Bulbul's mother (2017–)
• Madhu Raja as Daljeet Arora, Matriarch of Arora family, grandmother of the four Arora girls (2017–)
• Neelam Mehra as Mrs Luthra (Dadi), Rishabh, Karan, Ruchika, Sameer and Kritika's grandmother (2017–18)
• Anisha Hinduja as Rakhi Luthra, Rishabh, Karan and Ruchika's mother (2017–)
• Navin Saini as Mahesh Luthra, Rishabh and Karan and Ruchika's father (2017–)
• Pyumori Mehta Ghosh as Kareena Luthra, Rishabh, Karan, Sameer and Ruchika's aunt, Kritika's mother (2017)
• Usha Bachani as Kareena Luthra, Mahesh's sister, Kritika’s mother and Rishabh, Karan, Sameer and Ruchika's aunt (2017–)
• Twinkle R Vasisht as Kritika Luthra, Rishabh, Karan, Sameer & Ruchika’s cousin, Kareena’s daughter and Akshay's fiancée (2017–)
• Mrinal K Singh as Ruchika Luthra, Rishabh and Karan’s sister, Sameer and Kritika’s cousin, Rakhi & Mahesh’s daughter (2017–)
• Ruhi Chaturvedi as Sherlyn Khurana, female antagonist presently engaged to Rishabh (2017–)
• Sanjay Gagnani as Prithvi Malhotra, Sherlyn's lover, male antagonist presently engaged to Preeta (2017–)
• Rohit Choudhary as Sanju, Corporation's brother (2018)
• Sriti Jha as Pragya Abhishek Prem Mehra (née Arora) as Preeta, Srishti and Bulbul's elder sister, Sarla's daughter (2017–)
• Shabbir Ahluwalia as Abhishek Prem Mehra as Pragya's husband, brother-in-law of Preeta and Srishti (2017–)
• Vin Rana as Purab Khanna. Abhi's best friend, Bulbul's widower and Disha's husband (2017–)
• Ruchi Savarn as Disha Purab Khanna, Purab's wife (2017–)
• Mukul Harish as Akshay, Kritika's fiancé (2018–)
• Roma Arora as Sofia, Karan's on-off girlfriend (2017)
• Sumit Manak as Salil, Rishabh's assistant (2017)
• Neel Motwani as Neel Thakur, corrupt corporator.
• Mishal Raheja as King Singh, Kiara's Legal Father (2018–)
• Kaurwakee Vasistha as Kiara Singh/ Kiara Abhishek Mehra, Pragya and Abhishek's daughter (2018–)
• Aashish Mehrotra as Akshay, Kritika's fiancé (2017)
• Sahel Phull as Deepak, Preeta's ex fiancé. (2017)
• Vijay Kashyap as Raghuvir Arora(deceased), Sarla's husband and Pragya, Bulbul, Preeta and Srishti's father. (2017)
• Isha Anand Sharma as Taapsee, Prithvi's ex girlfriend (2018)

Special appearance

Actor	Day
Varun Dhawan	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Ravi Dubey	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Vivek Dahiya	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Arjun Bijlani	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Jeetendra	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Sheen Dass	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Akshay Mhatre	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Pranav Mishra	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Jyoti Sharma	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Krip Suri	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Yesha Rughani	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Divyanka Tripathi	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Dipika Kakar	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Sanjeeda Sheikh	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Gauahar Khan	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Siddharth Nigam	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Samiksha Jaiswal	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Karan Vohra	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Arjit Taneja	Ganesh Utsav Pooja
Aditi Sharma	Ganesh Utsav Pooja

Development

Kundali Bhagya

The core cast in promotional poster featuring Manit Joura, Shraddha Arya and Dheeraj Dhoopar in 2017. Arya was cast in the role in June 2017

Talking about introducing a spinoff of a popular show on a primetime Deepak Rajadhyaksha, 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." Kundali Bhagya was dubbed into Zee Telugu as Mangalya Bagyam.

Reception

Response

Kundali Bhagya in its debut week was the fourth-watched television show in the twenty eighth week (8–14 July) of 2017 in India with 5796 Urban and 4064 Rural Impressions.

In the thirty second week of 2017 (5–11 August), the soap opera became the second most-watched television show in India with 10498 Impressions (Urban+Rural) In Week 33 (12–19 August) 2017, the soap opera saw a dip in the ratings thereby recording 10097 Impressions (Urban+Rural) 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 (9–15 September), the soap opera show a jump in ratings and recorded its highest since debut, 10940 Impressions (Urban+Rural) thereby becoming the second most-watched show in India for the week, the first being its sister show Kumkum Bhagya. In Week 40, 2017 (30 September – 6 October), the soap opera recorded 11216 Impressions (Urban+Rural) 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 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 2016 by Balaji Telefilms. The show continues to top and rise in ratings. It is the most successful show in terms of TRP and has been numero uno for record since last week of December 2017 till date barring one week.

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2017	Zee Rishtey Awards	Favorite Naya Sadasya (Male)	Dheeraj Dhoopar	Won
		Favorite Popular Character (Female)	Shraddha Arya
		Favorite Naya Sadasya (Female)	Shraddha Arya	Nominated
		Favorite Popular Character (Male)	Dheeraj Dhoopar
		Favorite Jodi	Shraddha Arya & Dheeraj Dhoopar
		Favorite Dharavaahik	Ekta Kapoor
2018	26th Kalakar Awards	Best Actress	Shraddha Arya	Won
		Best TV Show	Ekta Kapoor

External links

• Official webpage on Zeetv.com
• Official webpage on ZEE5.com
• Kundali Bhagya at IMDb