Exclusive! Yeh Meri Family's Juhi Parmar: My TV show, Kumkum, was ahead of its time

Exclusive! Yeh Meri Family's Juhi Parmar: My TV show, Kumkum, was ahead of its time

Juhi Parmar

Gaining popularity with the long-running daily soap Kumkum – Ek Pyara Sa Bandhan, Juhi Parmar became one of the most loved actors on television. She continued to maintain a strong fanbase by participating in and winning reality shows like Bigg Boss 5. She is finally making her OTT debut with the web series Yeh Meri Family: New Season.

Most television actors are transitioning to web series and digital shows since they feel that the content on streaming platforms is more progressive than that on television.

Yeh Meri Family: New Season is set in the 1990s. During a recent conversation with OTTplay, we asked Juhi about her take on progressive OTT content.

Juhi said, "Life has changed, and how! Our lifestyle and relationships with people have changed. Now, when you watch old shows, you feel 'pehle aisa hota tha', but back in the day, people used to like such content. TV show makers were serving content that the audience wanted to watch. The way the audience has evolved now, it is possible to make more experimental content because we have access to world cinema and international content. But that is not how it was in the 90s and early 2000s."

Citing the example of her own show, the actress explained, "Kumkum... was ahead of its time. It was about the remarriage of a widow, that too with her brother-in-law. Something like that was not common on TV or even in real life. Eventually, the jodi of Kumkum and Sumeet was not only accepted by the audience, but they were considered an ideal couple, like Lord Ram and Sita."

"When we were making the show, we did not know if the audience would accept it. So, yes, back then, it was progressive and ahead of its time. Maybe it's no big deal now, but we must understand that the whole idea of 'ahead of its time content' becomes normal as time is only moving forward."

Kumkum – Ek Pyara Sa Bandhan was one of the most popular TV shows telecast on Star Plus between 2002 and 2009.

Yeh Meri Family is a TVF original that is set in the winter of Lucknow in the 1990s. The story revolves around the Awasthi family. Juhi plays Neerja Awasthi, the lady of the house, who is a school teacher and a mother of two children.

It is a heartwarming tale and has been getting a positive response from critics and audiences alike.

It is available to stream on Amazon miniTV.

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