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]
Background
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]
Plot
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.
Part 1 : Kacchi Umar Ke Pakke Rishte
An 8-year-old girl, Anandi is married to Jagdish "Jagya" Singh. Jagya's widowed sister Sugna 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 marraige. 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, 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.
Part 2: Lamhe Pyaar Ke
The second part is set 15 years after the end of Part 1. 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 stepson 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.
Cast
Main
Pratyusha Banerjee and Toral Rasputra as Anandi Shekhar: Khajaan and Bhagawati's daughter; Jagdish's ex-wife; Shiv's widow; Nandini and Shivam's mother; Amol's adoptive mother (2010–2013) and (2013–2016)
Shashank Vyas and Shakti Anand as Dr. Jagdish Singh: Bhairon and Sumitra's son; Suguna's younger brother; Anandi and Gauri's ex-husband; Nandu and Bhairavi's adopted cousin; Ganga's husband; Mahendra's step-father; Abhimanyu's father (2010–2015) and (2015–2016)
Sidharth Shukla as IAS Shivraj "Shiv" Shekhar: Anoop and Meenakshi's elder son; Mahi's elder brother; Sanchi's cousin; Anandi's second husband; Nandini and Shivam's father; Amol's adoptive father (2012–2015)
Sriti Jha and Sargun Mehta and Aasiya Kazi as Ganga Singh: Ratan's ex-wife; Jagdish's third wife; Mahendra and Abhimanyu's mother (2013) and (2013–2014) and (2014–2016)
Chetanya Adib as Khajaan Singh: Bhagwati's husband; Anandi's father; Nandini and Shivam's grandfather; Amol's adoptive grandfather (2008–2015)
Bhairavi Raichura as Bhagawati: Khajaan's wife; Anandi's mother; Nandini and Shivam's grandmother; Amol's adoptive grandmother (2008–2012)
Surekha Sikri as Kalyani Devi Singh: Dharmavir's widow; Bhairon's mother; Basant's aunt and adoptive mother; Suguna and Jagdish's grandmother; Nandu and Bhairavi's adoptive grandmother; Varun, Shagun, Abhimanyu's great-grandmother; Mahendra's step-great-grandmother (2008–2016)
Heeba Shah as child Kalyani Devi Singh (shown in a flashback scene)
Anup Soni as Bhairon Singh: Dharmavir and Kalyani's son; Basant's adopted brother; Sumitra's husband; Sugna and Jagdish's father; Varun, Shagun and Abhimanyu's grandfather; Mahendra's step-grandfather (2008–2014)
Smita Bansal as Sumitra Bhairon Singh: Bhairon's wife; Suguna and Jagdish's mother; Varun, Shagun and Abhimanyu's grandmother; Mahendra's step-grandmother (2008–2014)
Veebha Anand and Janvi Chheda as Suguna Shyam Singh: Bhairon and Sumitra's daughter; Jagdish's elder sister; Nandu and Bhairavi's adopted cousin; Pratap's widow; Shyam's wife; Varun and Shagun's mother (2008–2010) and (2011–2013)
Vikrant Massey and Sachin Shroff as Shyam Singh: Madan and Radha's son; Suguna's husband; Varun's step-father; Shagun's father (2009–2010)/(2011–2013)
Satyajit Sharma as Basant Singh: Mahavir's son; Dharmavir and Kalyani's adopted son; Bhairon's adopted brother; Jamuna ex-husband; Gehna's husband; Nandu and Bhairavi's father (2008–2014)
Neha Marda and Sheetal Khandal as Gehna Singh: Shambhu and Urmila's daughter; Kanchan and Rama's elder sister; Basant's widow; Niranjan's wife; Nandu and Bhairavi's mother (2008–2012) and (2012–2015)
Rishi Sonecha and Keval Katrodia and Mayur Mondal and Sanjay Basak as Nandkishore "Nandu" Singh: Basant and Gehna's son; Bhairavi's elder brother; Sugna and Jagdish's adopted cousin (2012–2015)
Rajendra Gupta as Mahavir Singh: Vasant's father; Nandu and Bhairavi's grandfather (2009–2012)
Vinay Yadav as Maakhan: a maid in Kalyani's house
Farida Jalal as Vasundhara Devi: Kalyani's elder sister (2009, 2012)
Rahul Lohani as Niranjan: Gehna's music teacher and second husband; Nandu and Bhairavi's step-father (2009–2010; 2014–2015)
Shashwat Joshi as Abhimanyu "Abhi" Singh: Jagdish and Ganga's son; Ma's half-brother; Varun and Shagun's cousin (2015)
Mamta Chaturya as Phooli: Anandi's best friend since childhood (2010–2012)
Faiza Faiz as child Phooli (2008–2010)
Pankaj Jha Kashyap as Meena's elder brother (2010)
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]
A dubbed version of the serial is telecast in Tamil language as Mann Vasanai on Raj TV.(8.00 p.m. IST)A dubbed version of the serial is telecast in Telugu language as Chinnari Pellikuthuru on MAA TV.
A dubbed version of the serial is telecast in Malayalam language as Balika Vadhu on Surya TV.
A dubbed version of the serial is telecast in Indonesian language as Balika Vadhu.
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]
