How India’s soap-opera queen Ekta Kapoor made a sex comedy with little sex in Thank You for Coming

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Although producer Ekta Kapoor didn’t get too involved in the creative development of Thank You For Coming, it’s hard to ignore the ways in which her latest film’s ethos mirrors her own journey in becoming a leading figure in India’s entertainment industry.

The comedy, which is set to release in theatres on Friday, tells the story of Kanika Kapoor (Bhumi Pednekar), a food blogger who can’t get no satisfaction from the series of men that she’s dated. Frustrated by her futile romantic encounters, she decides to say yes to an arranged match with Jeevan (Pradhuman Singh Mall), a mild-mannered businessman besotted with her.

The morning after the engagement party, Kanika wakes up with a revelatory experience. She’s had her first orgasm. Her subsequent search for the responsible person leads to moments of self-discovery.

But for all the one-liners about sex, there’s very little depiction of the actual act in Thank You For Coming.

“The orgasm in the film is a big metaphor. It’s actually about self-gratification. Women can’t choose our own happiness. We seek validation from others. From Kanika’s childhood, she thinks that someone is going to save her,” Kapoor says. “Until she realizes that no one saves anyone else.”

Dubbed India’s soap opera queen, Kapoor has been delivering television and movie hits since establishing her production company Balaji Telefilms Ltd. with her mother in 1994. Now, almost 30 years into her career and dressed in a fire-engine red pantsuit, her fingers bedecked with rings and hair framing her face just so, she leans back on the velvet sofa at the back end of Mister C Bar Room – steps away from the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Kapoor’s flown in from Mumbai the night before September’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere of Thank You For Coming, and is operating on 90 minutes of sleep. Yet, there isn’t a trace of fatigue on her person – she is in total control.

Then again, Kapoor’s been in charge of her narrative from early on in her career. The daughter of veteran Indian film star Jeetendra, she had the option to become an actress, like many of her peers. But she didn’t want to give up on her one pleasure.

“Food. If I would have given that up to become an actress, I would have been a depressed actor. I’d rather be a happy producer,” she says. “That was non-negotiable.”

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Uninterested in pursuing higher studies or getting married, Kapoor asked her father to take a chance on her. She took on her first TV show when she was 17, working with her mother. She could have banked on her father’s fame as a leading man for almost three decades in Bollywood. But she wanted to make her own mark on the male-dominated industry.

“We did it on our own, working from my dad’s garage for almost 10 years. We had one cabin we both would share. If she had a meeting, I would sit outside the cabin. If I had a meeting, she’d sit outside the cabin. And we made a company together,” she says. “So many people told me that if I had used my dad’s name, the doors would open quickly. But I was like, rather than the doors opening quickly, I want them to open slowly and remain open.”

Kapoor has created a series of box-office, TV ratings and digital media smashes under banners Balaji Telefilms Ltd., Balaji Motion Pictures Ltd. and ALTBalaji. She was the force behind movies such as The Dirty Picture (2011), inspired by the lives of Indian sex sirens such as Silk Smitha, and Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama set amid the state’s drug crisis.

But it was Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (2000-2008) that cemented Kapoor’s persona as a producer to be reckoned with. The TV show steeped in kitchen politics, centred on sari-clad women with picture-perfect makeup who played either the virtuous wife or scheming vamps, provided a template for the producer’s successive shows.

Thank You for Coming pays tribute to the series in a scene that’s deliciously cringeworthy. Film director Karan Boolani says it was because of Kapoor’s backing that he and his wife and co-producer, Rhea Kapoor (no relation to Ekta Kapoor), had the conviction to follow through with their initial idea of making a film about female pleasure and empowerment.

“Ekta’s had a great career because she’s so self-aware of what her audience is, what they enjoy. She’s always going into spaces that certain producers and studios would be hesitant to,” Boolani says.

While he considered himself familiar with the female perspective, Thank You For Coming was an opportunity for him to learn more about the strong independent women he was surrounded by, he adds.

“As a filmmaker and director, my job is to give them a safer space to express themselves because they’re going to be vulnerable. It feels like it’s a private conversation that we have been privy to.”

Prior to Thank You for Coming, Kapoor had collaborated with Rhea to make Veere Di Wedding (2018), a female buddy comedy. Members of the Indian film industry told them that the odds were stacked against them, she says – and that a film centred on four women would never open.

“We used to constantly discuss that we need to break this myth. That women-oriented films have to be either very dry or very serious or very boring,” Kapoor says. “Men can have fun on camera and women are supposed to do these hard-hitting films … that’s called being gaslighted in a certain way.”

Always interested in being “shamelessly real,” she was on board when Rhea told her she wanted to make a film about female orgasms. She had questions, however, about the film’s reception. Talking about sex makes people uncomfortable. And yet, the taboos around the subject makes it an inviting prospect.

“Instead of taking a stick and hitting patriarchy on its face, you’ve taken a feather and put it under the nose,” Kapoor says. “It’s even more fun when you tickle patriarchy, and this film does that.”

Thank You for Coming opens in theatres Oct. 6.