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Indian drama television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Balika Vadhu (transl. The Child Bride) is an Indian soap opera that aired on Colors TV between 21 July 2008 to 31 July 2016 with 2,245 episodes. The story is set in rural Rajasthan and revolves around the life of a child bride from childhood to womanhood.[2]
| Balika Vadhu | |
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| Also known as |
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| Genre | Soap opera |
| Written by |
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| Directed by |
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| Creative director | Siddhartha Vankar |
| Starring | See below |
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language | Hindi |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 2,245 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producers |
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| Cinematography |
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| Editors |
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| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 20 minutes |
| Production company | Sphere Origins |
| Original release | |
| Network | Colors TV |
| Release | 21 July 2008 – 31 July 2016 |
| Related | |
| Chhoti Anandi Balika Vadhu 2 | |
The show consists of two parts. The first part, Balika Vadhu – Kacchi Umar Ke Pakke Rishte (transl. The Child Bride – Strong Relationships of Tender Age) ran for 2,164 episodes, and focused on Anandi and Jagdish, who were married during childhood. The second part, Balika Vadhu – Lamhe Pyaar Ke (transl. The Child Bride – Moments of Love) which ran for 84 episodes, reflects the life of Anandi's daughter, Dr. Nandini, also known as Nimboli, another child bride.[3]
Balika Vadhu follows the lives of Anandi and Jagdish, who were married as children, and the challenges they and their families face over several decades.
An 8-year-old girl, Anandi is married to Jagdish "Jagya" Singh. Her schoolteacher fails in trying to stop the marriage. Jagya's widowed sister, Sugna, whose husband dies on the day they were supposed to marry, faces difficulty remarrying as she is pregnant. Though a local, Shyam asks Sugna's hand in marriage, Jagya doesn't approve of it. Later Jagdish and Anandi have final exams where Jagya gets lesser marks compared to Anandi's and switches his exam results with hers. Jagya's father, Bhairon finds about it so he runs away to Mumbai, where some goons kidnap him. Anandi is shot while saving him, though she recovers. Later, Jagya's grandmother gets him married to a girl named Gauri, while still being married to Anandi; the panchayat declares it illegal. Since both Jagya and Anandi are going through changes, their families decide that they should stay away from each other until they're both adolescents.
5 years later, Anandi returns to her in laws. Jagdish and Anandi are in love. Jagya is motivated to become a doctor when he is unable to find a doctor for an injured Anandi and goes to Mumbai to study. In meantime, he falls in love with his colleague, Gauri and insults Anandi for being uneducated.
4 years later, Jagdish completes his MBBS and wants to work at Mumbai. He meets Gauri again and decides to leave Anandi to marry her. They get married; Gauri believing that his child marriage is invalid. However, his family rejects them, leading Gauri to become vengeful towards them, which in turn disrupts her marital life with Jagdish. Bhairon asks Anandi to file a case against Jagdish, but she refuses, accepting his and Gauri's marriage. Meanwhile, Anandi educates village girls, campaigns against child marriage, and becomes the Sarpanch Bitiya of Jaitsar, and meets district collector Shivraj Shekhar who is impressed by her. She sends divorce papers to Jagya, which he angrily signs. Jagya and Anandi get divorced and Anandi tries to move on. Meanwhile, Jagya gets to know how Gauri had separated him from his family and divorces her for cheating and vows to reunite with Anandi. However, Anandi having moved on, marries Shivraj, forgives Jagya, and moves to Udaipur.
Sanchi, Shivraj's sister, develops a crush on Jagya. She however tries to create trouble in his family by creating misunderstandings and manipulating people. They get engaged and he returns to Mumbai to study. Six months later, he realizes that she only wants to marry him out of spite and calls-off the wedding. He marries Ganga, a girl whom he helped her get freed from her in-laws and get educated as a nurse, causing conflict with the family, and adopts her son while giving birth to a child. Meanwhile, Jagya runs for political office and becomes the Vidhya of Jaitsar.
Anandi and Shivraj adopt a disabled orphan Amol and treat him, and reunite him with his parents. Shivraj dies while trying to stop a terrorist attack as Anandi delivers twins Nandini and Shivam. Akhiraj, a goon, kidnaps Nandini and renames her Nimboli for marriage to his son Kundan.
11 years later, Jagya traces Nandini, and Akhiraj is arrested but escapes custody and kills Anandi as she protects her children. Jagya fatally shoots him, but the twins fall into a river and presumably die. They however survive and are put into an orphanage. They are separated when Shivam is arrested for murdering a man who tried to rape Nandini.
15 years later, Nandini is a physician, driven by a promise to her dying mother to provide medical treatment throughout Rajasthan. She marries medical student Krish Malhotra, who she later learns is the step-son of Kundan. She also finds that the groom she approved for her adoptive sister Sudha is actually Shivam, who has become a gangster. She reunites with him. Kundan kidnaps her to force her to remarry him, but is killed by the police.
In the epilogue, she summarizes her family history from Anandi's childhood to her present in a book titled Balika Vadhu.
Balika Vadhu became one of the most watched Hindi GEC in its runtime and is one of the shows which helped get newly launched channel Colors TV to the first position in Hindi GEC, beating the nine years top position maintained by Star Plus.[4][5]
Balika Vadhu was met with mixed responses. While some appreciated it for portraying the issues of child marriage, some criticised the show for glorifying it.[6] The series had a very low initial rating of 0.7 TVR, but by five weeks after launch, it had entered the top five most-watched Hindi GEC and had become Colors TV's top programme.[7][8][9]
In five weeks after launch, it entered the top five most-watched Hindi GEC.[10] Thus, Balika Vadhu helped Colors TV's top positioning a lot. Balika Vadhu often held top position mostly on the ratings charts from 2008 to 2013.
In week 11 of 2009, it occupied third position with 5.9 TVR.[11] On 13 June 2009, it was at fourth position with 5.3 TVR.[12] In week 11 of 2010, it occupied top position and garnered 7.7 TVR.[13] In week 30 of 2010, it occupied with the top position with 6.9 TVR.[14]
On 28 May 2011, it occupied the top position with 4.91 TVR.[15] In week 24 of 2011, it was at second position with 4.81 TVR.[16] In first two weeks of August 2011, it garnered 6.1 and 5.2 TVRs maintaining its top position.[17] In the first week of 2012, it occupied the second position with 4.76 TVR.[18] In week 50 of 2012, it was at top position with 5.8 TVR.[19] In last week of July 2013, it was at second position with 3.9 TVR.[20]
The series was addressed in Indian Parliaments during 2009, prompting the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to stop its telecast, condemning it for portraying child marriage against the Indian constitutional law.[21][22][23]
A reboot of the show, named Balika Vadhu 2, aired on the same channel from 9 August 2021 to 29 March 2022.
An animated series, Chhoti Anandi, was launched in 2016. The show focuses on the adventures of an eight year old Anandi and her friends. It was simulcasted on Colors TV and Rishtey from January to April 2016.[24] The animation was provided by HopMotion animation studio.[25]
| Language | Title | Original release | Network(s) | Last aired | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hindi | Balika Vadhu बालिका वधू |
21 July 2008 | Colors TV | 31 July 2016 | Original |
| Kannada | Putta Gowri Maduve ಪುಟ್ಟ ಗೌರಿ ಮದುವೆ |
24 December 2012 | Colors Kannada | 9 October 2022 | Remake |
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