Weight loss has come really late to me: Ekta Kapoor

Film and Television producer Ekta Kapoor, says the idea of shedding weight to become fit and fab, came really late in her career.

"I have been obese always. I have grown up with Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol and others around me who were always great but the idea of weight loss came late to me," the 38-year-old producer said at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival here.

She was in conversation with author Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi in a session "Each Others Stories."

"In fact it hasn't even come completely. But I never had a problem with being obese and I don't pay attention to those criticise me," the once very chubby actress who has succeeded in losing a lot of weight over the past few years said.

Ekta, who is called the queen of soap opera, for the numerous TV serials she has produced said she had a fascination for female characters, which could stem from her mother's insistence on the need of being independant.

"My mother kept telling my father to let me be independent and then she took strong steps. I believe, that determination led to my fascination for female characters," she said.

All her serials have however not all been modelled on the 'determined independent women', but some of them have been based on stereotyped stories of mother-in law and daughter-in law.

Ekta responds, "All sort of women exist in the society and I have to show all sides of them."

When quizzed about the reality of her characters who "sleep with their make up on," Ekta said,"I see it that way and I like it that way. I don't have to explain my choices to the critics."

Citing a scene from the Bollywood film "Dirty Picture", which she co-produced Ekta said, "The day you start thinking about what others think about you or say about you, you end up ruining yourself."

Ekta said she wished to make films and serials on biographies.

"I see the 'Dirty Picture' as a biography and I have many such biographies in my mind. But I have not convinced myself to any such book where the story and narrative appeals to me visually as well," she said.

Ekta's session at the Festival was interrupted by activists of a Rajput outfit who protested against the presence of filmmaker, objecting to the title of her TV serial 'Jodha Akbar'.