The series filmed the Modi family, exploring morals and values of a typical Gujaratijoint family. Initially, it focused on cousins Gopi and Rashi and their life in Modi Mansion after marrying Modis' sons Ahem and Jigar. After a leap, the series focused on Gopi's daughters, Meera and Vidya. Further leap focused on Ramakanth, Gopi's son and Sita.[7] The storyline constantly skips forward in time: a year in June 2013,[8] eight years in February 2014,[9] ten years in February 2015,[10] four years in May 2016,[11] and three months in March 2017. The series ended on 23 July 2017, completing 2,181.[12][13]
An orphan Gopi lives with her aunt Urmila and her daughter Rashi. Kokila decides to get her son Ahem married to Gopi. Urmila and Rashi plot to get Rashi married to Jigar. Soon Ahem-Gopi and Jigar-Rashi get married. Ahem's mother Kokila makes Gopi self-confident and educated and supports her. Soon, Gopi has a daughter, Meera, while Rashi has twin sons, Sahir and Samar. Gopi's long-lost parents, Madhu and Jayantilal arrive with her sister Radha. Rashi, who wants Radha to be her maid, poisoned her mind against Gopi along with Urmila. Radha married Umang Mehta, whose first wife Tripti kills him. She blames Gopi for Umang's death. However, Kokila works together with Rashi to find out the truth and later revealed Umang and Tripti's intentions thus sentencing her to eight years of imprisonment. Gopi finds out she is pregnant again. When the family is out at a picnic, Radha plans an accident to kill Meera which results in Gopi accidentally throwing her in the river. Kokila holds Gopi responsible for Meera's death, hence Gopi leaves the Modi house.
8 years later
Gopi is raising her second daughter, Vidya, single-handedly. Kokila decides to get Ahem married to Radha. On the day of marriage, Rashi finds Gopi and with the help of Samar, Sahir, Pappu, and Vidya, they make a plan to remarry Ahem and Gopi and are successful in doing so. Gopi reveals to the family that Vidya is their daughter. Kokila finds out that Meera is alive and find out that she was found by Radha in the river who later leaves her in a temple and made her grown up as an orphan. Kokila decides to expose them but Tripti causes her accident and she loses her partial memory. Gopi and Ahem bring a girl Gauri to the house which turned out to be Meera. Kokila regains her memory and the whole family is reunited after Radha's crimes are revealed, and she is sent to jail with Tripti for trying to kill her and Meera.
Rashi's maternal cousin, Paridhi, enters into the Modi residence. Rashi sacrifices her life to save Gopi from the latter's obsessed colleague, Anurag Joshi, who later revealed as a mental disorder tutor that was sent by Radha. Jigar goes into depression due to Rashi's demise. He married Paridhi as forced by the family. Radha returns and tricks Jigar into sleeping with her and gets pregnant. She delivered a daughter named Rashi Jr. and threatens to kill her. Realizing that Radha will never reform, Gopi stabs her with trishul repeatedly to save Rashi, killing her. She was then sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment.
10 years later
Gopi is released from jail and is shocked to learn that Kokila doesn't live in the Modi house anymore and became a maid at Urmila's house. Ahem has broken all ties with the Modis and lives with Meera, Vidya, and a woman, Mansi Raheja (who took care of Meera and Vidya) in Bandra. He is running a bakery shop called MV (after Meera-Vidya). Kinjal separates from Dhaval and live at Modi's house after an argument which caused Urmila's memory loss. While Madhu ran away after failed to take Rashi Jr. with her.
Gopi, Jigar, and Kokila travel to Mumbai to bring back Ahem and Meera-Vidya. They finally reunite the family. Vidya's marriage is fixed with Shravan, whose grandmother, Gaura, is Kokila's childhood friend. Gaura, who wants revenge on Kokila for her brother's death, secretly gets Meera married to her son, Dharam. Gopi's mother, Madhu returns with her adopted daughter, Sona, seeking revenge against the Modis for Radha's death. While trying to stab Kokila, Madhu accidentally stabs Gopi. Guilt-ridden after slapped by Sona, she runs away and jumps into a lake. Gopi survives and Sahir marries Sona. Dharam and Meera gradually fall in love and they get remarried. But their happiness is short-lived as Ahem dies due to a car accident.
4 years later
Gopi has been in depression since Ahem's demise and has not talked in years. Paridhi has thrown Sahir and Sona out of Modi's mansion and got Samar married to rich girl Monica. Baa, Chirag, Hetal, and Parag have moved to America for Baa's treatment. While Dhaval, Kinjal, and Pappu have moved to London. Vidya has a 4-year-old daughter, Priyal. Kokila fixes Gopi's marriage with her doctor, Krishna Raheja, who turns out to be Mansi's brother and wants to take a revenge from Gopi for separating Mansi and Ahem. Soon, Gopi and Kokila meet Ahem's look-alike, Jaggi and hire him to save Gopi from Krishna's evil plans. Later, it is revealed that Jaggi is Parag and Urvashi's illegitimate son.
Gopi learns from her friend, Antara, who is in her deathbed, that she gave birth to a son, and that Vidya is not Gopi's daughter. Antara had cheated on Gopi by swapping her daughter with Gopi’s son. Gopi's long-lost son, Ramakant, has now grown into a spoiled and selfish young man. Gopi and Jaggi bring Ramakant to live with Modis. Later, the Modis arrange his marriage to Sita. Ramakant reforms and marries Sita.
Cast
Main
Giaa Manek as Gopi Jaggi Modi – Jayantilal and Madhu's elder daughter; Radha's sister; Rashi's cousin; Ahem's widow; Jaggi's wife; Meera and Ramakant's mother; Vidya's adoptive mother; Medha and Jr. Ahem's grandmother; Priyal's adoptive grandmother (2010–2012)
Rucha Hasabnis as Rashi Jigar Modi – Jitu and Urmila's daughter; Gopi, Radha, Dhaval and Paridhi's cousin; Jigar's first wife; Sahir and Samar's mother; Jai, Veeru, Geeta and Jr. Sita's grandmother (2010–2014)
Rupal Patel as Kokila Parag Modi – Revati's elder daughter; Praful, Jigna and Paresh's sister; Parag's wife; Ahem and Kinjal's mother; Jaggi's step-mother; Meera, Ramakant and Prateek's grandmother; Vidya's adoptive grandmother; Medha and Jr. Ahem's great-grandmother; Priyal's adoptive great-grandmother (2010–2017)
Ahem Parag Modi – Kokila and Parag's son; Kinjal's brother; Jaggi's half-brother; Jigar's cousin; Gopi's first husband; Meera and Ramakant's father; Vidya's adoptive father; Medha and Jr. Ahem's grandfather; Priyal's adoptive grandfather (2010–2016)
Jaggi Parag Modi – Parag and Urvashi's son; Kokila's step-son; Ahem and Kinjal's half-brother; Jigar's cousin; Gopi's second husband; Meera, Vidya and Ramakant's step-father; Priyal, Medha and Jr. Ahem's step-grandfather (2016–2017)
Vishal Singh as Jigar Chirag Modi – Hetal and Chirag's son; Ahem, Jaggi and Kinjal's cousin; Rashi and Radha's widower; Paridhi's husband; Sahir, Samar and Jr. Rashi's father; Jai, Veeru, Geeta and Jr. Sita's grandfather (2010–2016)
Loveleen Kaur Sasan as Paridhi Jigar Modi – Jay and Veena's daughter; Rashi and Dhaval's cousin; Jigar's second wife; Sahir, Samar and Jr. Rashi's step-mother; Jai, Veeru, Geeta and Jr. Sita's step-grandmother (2014–2017)
Tanya Sharma as Meera Dharam Suryavanshi – Gopi and Ahem's daughter; Jaggi's step-daughter; Ramakant's sister; Vidya's adopted sister; Sahir, Samar, Prateek and Jr. Rashi's cousin; Dharam's second wife; Medha and Jr. Ahem's mother (2015–2017)
Mazel Vyas as Child Meera "Gauri" Ahem Modi (2014–2015)
Sonam Lamba as Vidya Shravan Suryavanshi – Antara's daughter; Gopi and Ahem's adopted daughter; Jaggi's step-daughter; Meera and Ramakant's adopted sister; Sahir, Samar, Prateek and Jr. Rashi's adopted cousin; Shravan's wife; Priyal's mother (2015–2017)
Palak Panchal as Child Vidya Modi (2014–2015)
Amar Upadhyay as Dharam Suryavanshi – Gaura's son; Durga's widower; Meera's husband; Shravan, Naiya, Medha and Jr. Ahem's father; Priyal's grandfather (2015–2017)
Kunal Singh as Shravan Dharam Suryavanshi – Dharam and Durga's son; Naiya's brother; Medha and Jr. Ahem's half-brother; Vidya's husband; Priyal's father (2015–2017)
Rohit Suchanti as Ramakant "Ricky" Ahem Modi – Gopi and Ahem's son; Antara's adopted son; Jaggi's step-son; Meera's brother; Vidya's adopted brother; Sahir, Samar, Prateek and Jr. Rashi's cousin; Sameera's ex-husband; Sita's husband (2017)
Shruti Prakash as Sita Ramakant Modi – Keshavlal's daughter; Bhavani's step-daughter; Ramakant's second wife (2017)
Recurring
Manish Arora as Parag Tolaram Modi – Tolaram and Janko's younger son; Chirag's brother; Urvashi's ex-lover; Kokila's husband; Ahem, Jaggi and Kinjal's father; Meera, Ramakant and Prateek's grandfather; Vidya's adoptive grandfather; Medha and Jr. Ahem's great-grandfather; Priyal's adoptive great-grandfather (2010–2017)
Neeraj Bharadwaj as Chirag Tolaram Modi – Tolaram and Janko's elder son; Parag's brother; Hetal's husband; Jigar's father; Sahir, Samar and Jr. Rashi's grandfather; Jai, Veeru, Geeta and Jr. Sita's great-grandfather (2010–2016)
Swati Shah as Hetal Chirag Modi – Chirag's wife; Jigar's mother; Sahir, Samar and Jr. Rashi's grandmother; Jai, Veeru, Geeta and Jr. Sita's great-grandmother (2010–2016)
Vandana Vithlani as Urmila Jitu Shah – Veena and Baldev's sister; Jitu's widow; Rashi's mother; Gopi, Radha, Dhaval, and Paridhi's aunt; Sahir and Samar's grandmother; Jai, Veeru, Geeta and Jr. Sita's great-grandmother (2010–2017)
Jyotsna Karyekar as Janko "Baa" Tolaram Modi – Matriarch of Modis'; Tolaram's widow; Chirag and Parag's mother; Ahem, Jaggi, Jigar and Kinjal's grandmother; Meera, Sahir, Samar, Ramakant, Prateek and Jr. Rashi's great-grandmother; Vidya's adoptive great-grandmother (2010–2011)
Aparna Kanekar replaced Karyekar as Janko "Baa" Modi. (2011–2016)
Ashish Sharma as Dhaval Baldev Desai – Baldev's son; Rashi and Paridhi's cousin; Kinjal's husband; Prateek's father (2011–2015)
Jaya Ojha as Madhu Jayantilal Kapadia – Jitu's sister; Jayantilal's widow; Gopi and Radha's mother; Rashi's aunt; Sonakshi's adoptive mother; Meera, Ramakant and Jr. Rashi's grandmother; Vidya's adoptive grandmother; Medha and Jr. Ahem's great-grandmother; Priyal's adoptive great-grandmother (2013–2016)
Sanjeev Bhatt as Jayantilal Kapadia – Madhu's husband; Gopi and Radha's father; Meera, Ramakant and Jr. Rashi's grandfather; Vidya's adoptive grandfather; Medha and Jr. Ahem's great-grandfather; Priyal's adoptive great-grandfather (2013–2014)
Bhavini Purohit as Radha Jigar Modi – Jayantilal and Madhu's younger daughter; Gopi's sister; Rashi's cousin; Jigar's third wife; Umang's widow; Jr. Rashi's mother (2013–2015)
Pooja Sahu as Falguni – Dhaval's secretary (2012–2013)
Susheel Johari as Jitu Shah – Madhu's brother; Urmila's husband; Rashi's father; Sahir and Samar's grandfather; Jai, Veeru, Geeta and Jr. Sita's great-grandfather (2010–2014)
Paras Babbar as Sahir "Tolu" Jigar Modi – Rashi and Jigar's elder son; Paridhi's step-son; Samar's twin-brother; Jr. Rashi's half-brother; Meera, Ramakant and Prateek's cousin; Vidya's adopted cousin; Sonakshi's husband; Jai, Veeru, Gita and Jr. Sita's father (2015–2017)
Hiteeka Ruchchandran as Jr. Rashi Jigar Modi – Radha and Jigar's daughter; Sahir and Samar's half-sister; Meera, Ramakant and Prateek's cousin; Vidya's adopted cousin (2015–2016)
Paras Tomar as Prateek "Pappu" Dhaval Desai – Kinjal and Dhaval's son; Meera, Sahir, Samar, Ramakant and Jr. Rashi's cousin; Vidya's adopted cousin (2015)
Ayaan as Jai Sahir Modi – Sonakshi and Sahir's elder son; Veeru, Geeta and Jr. Sita's brother (2016–2017)
Vihaan as Veeru Sahir Modi – Sonakshi and Sahir's younger son; Jai, Geeta and Jr. Sita's brother (2016–2017)
Vandana Pathak as Gaura Suryavanshi – Kokila's enemy and former friend; Dharam's mother; Shravan, Naiya, Medha and Jr. Ahem's grandmother; Priyal's great-grandmother (2015–2017)
Pubali Sanyal as Durga Dharam Suryavanshi – Dharam's first wife; Shravan and Naiya's mother; Priyal's grandmother (2015–2016) (Dead)
Kashvi as Priyal Shravan Suryavanshi – Vidya and Shravan's daughter (2016–2017)
Pratibha Tiwari as Naiya Prakash Agarwal – Dharam and Durga's daughter; Shravan's sister; Medha and Jr. Ahem's half-sister; Prakash's wife (2016)
Harsh Rajput as Prakash Agarwal – Naiya's husband (2016)
Ashnoor Kaur as Panna – Sonia's sister; Gopi's little neighbor (2010)
In May 2012, lead Giaa Manek signed on to appear on the reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa on rival network Colors TV.[16]Saathiya producers objected, noting that Manek was under contract with their network and that doing a reality series could tarnish her onscreen image as a soft-spoken character.[17] The producers took their complaints to the Association of Motion Pictures and TV Programme Producers (AMPTPP) and to Cine and TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA) for arbitration. Members of CINTAA had meetings with Manek and asked her to quit the reality show. Manek declined and Star replaced her with Devoleena Bhattacharjee.[17]
In January 2014, Rucha Hasabnis playing Rashi confirmed that she planned to quit the series any time in that year.[18] However, she decided to quit acting and left with her character being killed.[19]
In September 2015, Lovely Sasan playing Paridhi quit the series as she did not want to play the role of a mother.[20] However, after sometime when the makers approached her, she agreed and returned in March 2016.[21]
In May 2016, Mohammed Nazim as Ahem quit the show because of one member of the production crew stating:[22]
"Since the existing key actors aired their reservations about playing grandparents, the creatives had no option but to put the time leap on hold. Something drastic needed to be done to liven up the storyline. After brainstorming, the best idea seemed to bump off Ahem's character, so a new man could be introduced in protagonist Gopi's life to take the story forward,"
Khalid Siddiqui was cast opposite Bhattacharjee as Krishna in May 2016.[23] As their story decreased in ratings, in July 2016, Nazim was made to re-enter the series as Jaggi, a look-a-like of Ahem's illegitimate twin half-brother. The story now focused on him and Bhattacharjee.[24]
Filming
Set in Gujarat, the series was mainly filmed at sets in Mira Road near Mumbai. The outside shell of the Modi Mansion shown in the episodes was of the Shubham Villa located on Madh Island.[25][26] In December 2012, a sequence was shot at Bhuj, Gujarat, for 10 days.[27]
Some episodes were also filmed at foreign locations, including Switzerland in May 2011 and Singapore in February and March 2017.[28][29] Earlier, the United States was considered, but was cancelled and replaced with Singapore due to the studio's budget.[30]
On 26 May 2021, Shoonya Square Productions announced a reboot of Saathiya on Star Plus's Sister channel Star Bharat with similar cast figures including Giaa Manek, Mohammad Nazim, Rupal Patel and Vandana Vithlani reprising their roles.[31][32] Along with these actors, there were several new characters with similar concepts of a Gujarati Joint-Family.[33] The show aired on Star Bharat, the sister channel of StarPlus.[34] In early July 2021, the title was finalized as Tera Mera Saath Rahe.[35] On 25 July 2021, the first promo was released featuring Giaa Manek and Rupal Patel.[36] The reboot version was broadcast from 16 August 2021 to 17 June 2022.
Dubbed versions
It was dubbed in Telugu as Kodala Kodala Koduku Pellamaa on Star Maa and in Vietnamese as Âm Mưu Và Tình Yêu.[37][38][39] It was dubbed in Indonesian and aired under the title Gopi (according to the main character) starting 15 September 2016 until 19 April 2017.[40][41] It was broadcast by THVL 1 in Vietnam with the title Âm Mưu Và Tình Yêu. In Bulgaria, the series was dubbed in Bulgarian as Остани с мен on Diema Family.[42][43][44] The series has been dubbed into Turkish as Masum on Kanal 7 where it aired in March 2020 and ended on 30 July 2021. It was also broadcast in Romanian as Suflete Tradate which aired on National TV (Romania).[45][46][47]Saath Nibhaana Saathiya aired in Pakistan on Urdu 1 and H Now Entertainment but was later discontinued due to the censorship of Indian content.[48] It also aired in Sri Lanka dubbed in Sinhala as Mage Sanda Obai on Swarnavahini.[49][50]
Hindustan Times appreciated the series for the majority of the cast being newcomers; however, they criticised the series as "The loud clothes and backward settings induce a pukey sensation. There's serious amount of overacting involved by the actors, whether they play protagonists or mums and dads. It’s too old fashioned and boring".[51]
Ratings
With a low number of viewers in May 2010, the series' attention increased gradually and eventually became one of the top Hindi television shows at that time.[4] Additionally, in November 2010, it occupied the top position with 5.3 TVR.[52] As the ratings increased, it was acclaimed by Hindustan Times for redefining the 7:00 pm (IST) slot as a prime time.[53]
In the first week of 2011, it was the most watched Hindi GEC with 6.3 TVR.[54] On the week of 26 March 2011, it occupied fourth position with 5 TVR.[55] In week 13 of 2011, it was at third position with 5.31 TVR.[56] On the week of 9 April 2011, it was at the second position with 4.96 TVR.[57] In the week of 3 September 2011, it topped with 6.3 TVR.[58] In week 43, it was at top position with 6.5 TVR.[59] In December, the series garnered its highest rating of 7.58 TVR, being the most watched Hindi GEC in that week for that specific timeslot.[60][61] In the week of 3 December 2011, it maintained its top position garnering 6.26 TVR.[62] Overall, it was the most watched Indian Hindi television show of 2011.[63]
It maintained its first position in first week of 2012 garnering 6 TVR.[64] From May 7 to 13, 2012, it occupied first position with 5+ TVR, beating Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, a series that had the position the previous week.[65] In the week of 21 July 2012, it was at sixth position with 2.9 TVR.[66] In the last six months, the ratings of the series dipped averaging about 6 TVR to 3+ TVR, being one of the most watched Hindi GEC.[67] In mid December 2012, it was at third position with 4.3 TVR.[68]
In June 2013, it was the sixth most watched Hindi GEC fiction with a TVR of 2.6.[69] In weeks 43 and 44, it garnered 7.4 and 7.5 million viewership.[70] Overall, in 2013, it became the seventh most watched Indian Hindi Television program with an average of 6.4 million and peak of 8.7 million viewership.[71]
In week 4 of 2014, it garnered a rating of 4.6 TVR.[72] On week 49, it was in third position with 3.9 TVR.[73] Overall, it still continued to maintain its position in the weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs during 2014.[74]
In the second week of July 2015, it was at the top position.[75] On week 32 of 2015, it was the most watched with 4 TVR while the previous week, it shared the first position with Kumkum Bhagya garnering 3.8 TVR.[76][77] From weeks 33 to 35, it garnered 3.6, 3.4 and 3.6 TVR, maintaining its position in top five shows.[78] In the second week of September 2015, it was at second position with 4.3 TVR.[79] In 2015, it maintained its weekly position in top ten watched Hindi GEC ranging between 3.5 and 4 TVR.[80]
In week 4 of 2016, it garnered a TRP of 3.5 occupying third position.[81] In week ending 29 April 2016, it was at third position with 10.51 million impressions and the following week at fourth position with 10.25 million impressions.[82][83] In week 26, it was at third position with 9.386 million impressions.[84] In week 35, it occupied second position with 10.68 million impressions.[85] In week 41, it was at third position with 10.074 million impressions.[86]
In week 4 of 2017, it was at seventh position in urban areas.[87] Maintaining its position in top ten programs since weeks after the premiere, in 2017, the viewership dropped with the series moving out of the top ten Hindi GEC. In week 27 of 2017, it garnered 6.7 million impressions and occupied the twelfth position.[88]
The clip from an episode where the lead character Gopi (Giaa Manek) washes a laptop went viral and was subjected to various trolls and criticism.[90]
On 21 August 2020, music composer Yashraj Mukhate uploaded an edited video which featured the characters Kokila (Rupal Patel), Rashi (Rucha Hasabnis) and Gopi (Gia Manek). It was recorded in the soap opera accompanied by a rap song by Rupal Patel in which Kokila scolds Rashi for putting up the cooker without the chana (known also as gram or chickpeas) in the kitchen.[91] The video quickly garnered over 4.5 million views as on 24 August 2020 in Instagram and memes also trended related to the rap song.[92][93]
^ ab"Gopi bahu replaced overnight!". The Times of India (Press release). 8 June 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2017. Giaa Manek, better known as Gopi bahu from the serial Saath Nibhana Saathiya, has been replaced overnight thanks to her decision to participate in the upcoming dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa on a rival channel; Now there's a new Gopi bahu on TV - Devoleena Bhattacharjee, last seen in the serial Preeto.
