Kumkum Bhagya
Kumkum Bhagya
Genre	Indian soap opera Drama Romance
Created by	Ekta Kapoor
Based on	Sense and Sensibility byJane Austen
Developed by	Balaji Telefilms
Written by	Story Anil Nagpal Screenplay Anil Nagpal Vikas Tiwari Dialogues Dheeraj Sarna
Directed by	Muzammil Desai Sharad Yadav
Creativedirector(s)	Creative Producer Tanusri Dasgupta Shaalu
Starring	Sriti Jha, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Mrunal Thakur, Arjit Taneja
Theme music composer	Lalit Sen Nawab Arzoo
Country of origin	India
Originallanguage(s)	Hindi
No. of seasons	01
Production
Producer(s)	Ekta Kapoor Shobha Kapoor
Location(s)	Mumbai
Cinematography	Sanjay Memane Anil Katke
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	Approx. 22 minutes
Productioncompany(s)	Balaji Telefilms
Broadcast
Original channel	Zee TV
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	April 15, 2014 – Present
External links
Website

Kumkum Bhagya is an Indian television drama show,^[1] which premiered on April 15, 2014. It airs on Zee TV from Monday through Friday.^[2] The show is produced by Ekta Kapoor under her banner Balaji Telefilms. The show is loosely based on the novel Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.^[3][4]

Plot summary[edit]

Kumkum Bhagya is a show following the lives of Sarla Arora (Supriya Shukla), a Punjabi matriarch who runs a marriage hall, and her two daughters, Pragya (Sriti Jha) and Bulbul (Mrunal Thakur) and their lives with Abhishek Prem Mehra(Abhi) (Shabbir Ahluwalia), a famous singer, and Purab Khanna (Arjit Taneja), Abhi's manager and best friend. Pragya, a college lecturer, is a straight-forward, honest, and caring girl who can do anything for the happiness of her family, especially her mom and her sister. Bulbul is a vivacious, bubbly, and ambitious girl who loves her sister more than anything in the world. Pragya and Bulbul have a neighbor named Suresh (Faisal Rashid) who is also a college lecturer at the same college as Pragya. Pragya has always liked Suresh, but little does she know that he is madly in love with Bulbul. Everyone assumes that Pragya and Suresh like each other so they arrange their marriage, and Suresh agrees because he realizes Bulbul will never like him (he is very nerdy looking and serious). Unfortunately, Pragya finds out that Suresh likes Bulbul, and she calls off the marriage. Bulbul is devastated because this is the second time Pragya's marriage has broken because of Bulbul (the first time, the groom said no to Pragya because he thought Bulbul is prettier - Pragya doesn't see herself as beautiful because she wears glasses and doesn't keep up with fashion trends etc).

Here, the story of Abhi and Purab becomes relative. Abhi is a rockstar who has a huge (female) fanbase. Purab is his best friend and manager. The two most important people in Abhi's life are his daadi and his younger sister Alia (his parents died when he was young). He has a girlfriend named Tanu, a supermodel and Alia's best friend, who loves her career more than she loves him (but he doesn't see that). Abhi wants Purab and Alia to marry each other, and he made Purab promise that when Alia comes back from Australia (where she is studying) he will marry her, and Purab agrees.

Soon, Bulbul gets a job at Purab's office. Initially, they have many misunderstandings between them but eventually they fall in love. Bulbul introduces Purab to Pragya to get her approval. Alia, who has come back, sees Purab and Pragya together and hears them talking about marriage. She assumes that Pragya is a middle class gold digger and is using Purab for his wealth. Alia tells Abhi that Pragya is trapping Purab. Alia makes a plan that Abhi should marry Pragya to get her out of Purab's life and to show him that Pragya is a gold digger (she married Abhi because he is richer than Purab) and that only Alia loves him truly. Then Abhi can divorce her and marry Tanu. Using emotional blackmail, Alia convinces Abhi and Tanu for the plan.

Meanwhile, Abhi's daadi, who doesn't like Tanu, is looking for girls for his marriage, she comes across Pragya a couple of times and realizes she is the perfect girl who can mend Abhi's rockstar ways. Pragya is initially hesitant because she has met Abhi a couple of times, they always end up fighting, and doesn't believe they can be together but she agrees thinking about her mother's health (she may collapse if Pragya has another broken proposal). When Pragya agrees, Abhi is convinced that she is after money and not love. He wants to take revenge from her for ruining Alia's life, and for deceiving Purab. He sends Purab out of the city on a task so he cannot create a problem in the marriage.

With everyone's blessing, Abhi and Pragya get married. On their wedding night, Pragya finds Abhi in Tanu's apartment. The next day, Pragya finds out about Abhi-Alia-Tanu's plan and Abhi continues his affair with Tanu in front of a heartbroken Pragya. She decides to continue with the marriage for the happiness of her family and to keep the truth away from Abhi so as to keep Bulbul safe.

Here ensues a series of misunderstandings between Abhi and Pragya, with her always trying to help him and him thinking that it's another plan. They feel something for each other but deny it. Abhi hates Pragya a lot but is forced by Daadi to take care of her. Soon, Abhi decides to get Purab-Alia married. Bulbul finds out the truth about Abhi-Pragya's marriage, and forces Purab to agree to marry Alia so that Abhi "forgives" Pragya. On the day of the wedding, Purab finds out that Alia plans on throwing Pragya out of the house as soon as they get married, so he runs away. Purab leaves a letter for Abhi which explains the truth, but Tanu finds it. After reading it, she throws it away, thinking Abhi might feel guilty and start liking Pragya if he finds out that she did all this to protect her sister. Meanwhile, Abhi blames Pragya for Purab running away, thinking she still loves him.

Eventually, Abhi-Alia-Tanu find out that Purab loves Bulbul, not Pragya. But Abhi is still rude to Pragya and doesn't apologize for marrying her for revenge. He still believes that Pragya married him for money. Alia-Tanu focus on kicking Pragya out of the house, which is hard because Daadi loves a lot as she is an ideal bahu, and keeping Bulbul away from Purab.

Abhi and Pragya start growing close but whenever they do, some plan of Tanu-Alia's convinces Abhi that Pragya is wrong and he hates her again. But Abhi saves Pragya's family from trouble many times (saving the marriage hall, taking care of Sarla etc) and seeing his caring side, Pragya falls in love with him. But she doesn't say anything because she is sure he would not like a "chashmish" (that's what Abhi calls Pragya) and he loves Tanu. Although Pragya feels she cannot compete with supermodel Tanu, she exercises her right as Abhi's wife and tries to keep Tanu away from Abhi whenever possible.

Seeing Pragya get close to Abhi, a furious Alia and jealous Tanu make a fake MMS of Pragya and Suresh. Abhi believes the MMS and is furious with Pragya. Seeing the MMS, Abhi's Daadi has a heart attack and goes into coma. Abhi is even angrier at Pragya and wants her out of his life. Abhi gives Pragya 24 hours to prove her innocence but she fails. Not wanting to cause Abhi any more trouble and in order to save his reputation in case the MMS gets leaked, Pragya asks Abhi for a divorce. They both sign the divorce papers.

Pragya is about to leave the house when Abhi stops her and says he is getting her married to Suresh. On the day of the wedding, Abhi stops the marriage and proves Pragya innocent. He says he didn't believe in the MMS but he needed time to prove Pragya innocent so he made the whole drama of this marriage. He knows that Alia made the MMS, but doesn't know about Tanu or Mitali's involvement. He gets angry at Alia and tells her to move on from Purab and stop ruining everyone's life to be with him.

Abhi apologizes to Pragya for not believing her right away, and Pragya forgives him. Abhi reveals that he never sent the divorce papers to court - he burns the papers and ties a manglesutra around Pragya's neck (they're still married).

Alia decides to ruin Pragya's life. Abhi decides to get Purab and Bulbul married and fixes the alliance by going to Pragya's house and talking to her mom (he apologizes for everything with the MMS). Bulbul doesn't want to marry Purab because she believes it will hurt Abhi-Pragya's relationship but Abhi and Pragya console her and convince her to marry Purab. Purab and Bulbul finally get back together.

Alia is shocked when Abhi tells her that Purab-Bulbul are getting married. She blames Pragya. Abhi yells at Alia and even slaps her when she tries to hit Pragya. Enraged, Alia tries to commit suicide by slitting her wrist. Pragya rushes her to the hospital. When Alia is out of danger, Pragya yells at her (for the first time) and gives her a huge speech about how she is selfish and is ruining everyone's life. Alia gets emotional after this. Then Abhi and Purab come. Abhi gives a long speech about how much Alia means to him, and Alia cries and apologizes for her mistake. Purab talks to Alia and says he is willing to sacrifice his love for her happiness, but Alia stops him and says she accepts his and Bulbul's relationship. Alia has turned into a positive character.

Later, Abhi thanks Pragya for convincing Alia and jokes that she must have used her black magic. Throughout all this, Abhi seems to have gotten closer to Pragya and has drifted apart from Tanu. Tanu starts to create problems in Purab and Bulbul's marriage. Abhi announces Purab and Bulbul's marrriage infront of family in new year party.Suresh is heartbroken seing this. Tanu mixes alcohol in Suresh's drink.In drunken state, Suresh misbehaves with Bulbul and confesses his love for her infront of everyone. Pragya convinces Suresh that Purab and Bulbul love each other and Suresh will never get Bulbul. Tanu continues to planning against Pragya and Bulbul. Purab and Bulbul's Roka is done in Abhi's house.Alia is actually acting to be nice with Pragya and with help of Tanu she is planning to create more problems in Purab and Bulbul's marriage