Plot
Anupamaa is a middle-aged housewife who toils for her family. Her constant emotional supports are her younger son, Samar, who is a dancer, and her father-in-law, Hasmukh. However, upon discovering that her husband, Vanraj, has cheated on her with his colleague, Kavya, she feels heartbroken. She sets out to create a new identity, while Kavya causes trouble for her. Soon, Anupamaa's elder son, Paritosh, marries Kinjal, while Samar and Nandini, Kavya's niece, who is also a dancer, fall for each other. Anupamaa and Vanraj divorce, and he marries Kavya soon after her divorce from her husband, Aniruddh.
Anupamaa, along with Samar and Nandini, opens a dance academy due to their shared passion for dance. However, Nandini breaks up with Samar and leaves him forever because of her misunderstandings and insecurities towards him. Anupamaa later reconnects with her college classmate, Anuj Kapadia, who has been in love with her for the past 25 years. Anupamaa eventually falls in love with Anuj and they get married. Together, they adopt a girl, Chhoti Anu. Anupamaa struggles to balance her responsibilities between her two families. Amidst all this, Kinjal gives birth to a baby girl, Aarya, and learns that Paritosh has cheated on her, but they reconcile for the sake of their child. Anupamaa's daughter, Pakhi, marries Adhik, who is the brother of Anuj's sister-in-law, Barkha. Samar ends up marrying a rape victim, Dimple, who herself was divorced by her husband after her rape.
Later on, Kavya is revealed to be pregnant with her ex-husband's child, but Vanraj decides to accept the child. Unfortunately, Samar dies, leaving a pregnant Dimple behind. Due to some misunderstandings, Anuj and Anupamaa divorce and Anuj takes Chhoti Anu with him and renames her Aadhya.
5 years later, Anupamaa, whose mother has passed away, lives in her own house hiding from everyone. She owns a social media channel where she posts cooking videos, and the proceeds are later donated to old-age homes. Anuj and Aadhya have shifted to the USA where he gets engaged to a photographer Shruti for Aadhya's sake. Vanraj has become rich raising and pampering Samar's spoilt son, Ansh. Dimple has become a homemaker, serving the Shah family. Kinjal and Paritosh are struggling in the USA. Pakhi, who has moved back to the Shah house, is divorced from Adhik and raises her adopted daughter Ishani, carelessly. Kavya also has a daughter, Mahi, who craves for her father's love but Vanraj fails to connect with her remembering Kavya's betrayal.
Dimple and Tapish, a famous dancer, secretly love each other for five years. Anupamaa leaves for the US and faces challenges. She meets Anuj and Aadhya, but Aadhya hates her. All three return to India for Dimple and Tapish's marriage. Anuj breaks up with Shruti after she plots against Anupamaa. Dimple and Tapish get married after he reveals his traumatic childhood where his mother accidentally killed his abusive father in an attempt to save him and later surrendered herself and went to jail. Dimple and Tapish marry and the family reunites. Paritosh and Pakhi become greedy for money as Vanraj becomes richer. Feeling disheartened in their own home, Hasmukh and Leela shift to an old age home.
Anupamaa and Anuj finally unite, but Aadhya, still blaming Anupamaa for her traumatic past, leaves for a hostel. Anuj and Anupamaa, individually get into an accident.
6 months later, Anupamaa now lives in a shelter home called Asha Bhavan along with Hasmukh and other residents, including a divorced woman named Nandita with her newborn daughter Asha, two elderly Bala and Indira, and an orphan law student Sagar, who part-time drives an autorickshaw to fund his studies and Asha Bhavan. Neighboring the old age home is a new Shah house after Vanraj sold off the old one. Kavya has become an international model, leaving Mahi at the Shahs'. Vanraj has now turned soft towards Mahi but has become more rich and arrogant spoiling the children, especially Ansh. Pakhi and Paritosh have become greedier, while Kinjal serves the family. Dimple has changed and become greedy, neglecting Ansh and constantly arguing with Tapish.
Anupamaa still yearns for Anuj, while Anuj has lost his mental balance after losing his memory. Anuj is now referred to as "Kanha" by neighboring temple saints. Soon Anupamaa finds Anuj and brings him to Asha Bhavan and learns that after the accident, Ankush and Barkha told Anuj that Aadhya is dead and tricked him into signing his property on their name, ultimately leading to his present condition. Anupamaa vows to find Aadhya who was adopted by a rich couple, Viren and Megha, after their daughter Priya's death who resembles Aadhya. Soon Vanraj's niece, Meenakshi, returns from Russia after completing MBBS and she and Sagar become attracted to each other. It is revealed that Aadhya's adoptive mother has become crazy after Priya's death and she tortures Aadhya due to her overprotective nature. Aadhya repents for her ill behavior towards Anupamaa and yearns for Anupamaa and Anuj. Later, Anupamaa starts a cooking business and Anuj drives an autorickshaw to help Sagar fund Asha Bhavan and his studies.
Anupamaa finds Aadhya and on Janmashtami, Anupamaa rescues Aadhya from Megha's clutches and takes her to Anuj. Anuj and Aadhya have an emotional reunion but Megha arrives there and stabs Anupamaa. After recovering Anupamaa gives a reality check to Megha. At the same time, Vanraj flees after committing fraud. Kavya abandons Mahi and Anupamaa adopts the latter. Later, the Shahs are forced to vacate the Shah house and relocate to Asha Bhavan. Tensions arise as the Shahs struggle to stay with Asha Bhavan residents after leaving their lavish lifestyle. Meanwhile, Meenakshi and Sagar marry by running away. Enraged by their action, Dolly curses Anupamaa and tells her she will never get love from Aadhya. At the same time, Dimple turns insecure seeing Ansh's growing fondness with Aadhya and Dolly takes it as an opportunity to fuel it more after Tapish shifts to Mumbai.
Anuj and Anupamaa decide to get married again however Anuj boards to Himachal for a business meeting right before the wedding. During preparations, a scuffle occurs between Aadhya and Dimple for Ansh leading to Asha Bhavan catching a fire and Dimple dies after suffering severe burns. Although Aadhya tries to save Dimple, she gets blamed for her death by Dolly and the rest of the Shahs. Aadhya runs away from Ahmedabad fearing that Anupamaa will send her to the police after believing Dolly though Aarya being a witness to the accident describes the whole incident and exposes Dolly's lies, Kinjal decides to divorce Paritosh and live with Rakhi after gaining Aarya's custody and Meenakshi breaks ties with Dolly and she, Sagar and the rest of the Asha Bhavan members leave Asha Bhavan. On the other hand, Ankush, who is greedy over his power over the Kapadia Empire, reaches Himachal and attempts to kill Anuj by hitting him with a rock and throwing him off the cliff.
10 years later, Anupamaa and the entire Shah family move back to the Shah House, which Anupamaa retained after a hard-fought battle with the builder. She now runs a food business, Anu Ki Rasoi, with the help of several other housewives as her helpers. However, the business is struggling, and she seeks help from investors to keep it afloat.
Aadhya lives in an orphanage under a pseudo name "Rahi" and works as a tourist guide in Dwarka while struggling hard to earn money for serving other kids of orphanage.
Back in the Shah house, Kinjal, who never divorced Paritosh, has become increasingly greedy. She often body-shames Aarya due to her weight, instilling an inferiority complex in her. Kinjal's insecurities grow as she watches Pakhi groom Ishani into a successful model while Dolly too lives in a fear for being punished for her deeds done with Aadhya & wishes that the latter never arrives back.
Ansh, passionate about football, works as a video game developer. He serves as a constant pillar of support for Anupamaa, much like Samar was in the past. Meanwhile, Anupamaa shares a deep bond with Mahi, considering her like a daughter, and the feeling is mutual and just like Anupamaa is expert at culinary skills. Despite her strong connections, Anupamaa continues to miss Anuj and Aadhya deeply. While Prem visits Dwarka and unknowingly meets Aadhya when the latter saves him from drowning, Anupamaa too arrives there with Ansh to offer blessings to Lord Krishna in hope to find Aadhya.
With the help of Prem, Anupamaa reunites with Aadhya, who still hates her. Aadhya agrees to go back with Anupamaa under the condition that Anupamaa pays off the orphanage's debt. Anupamaa spends her life saving of 10 lacs to save the orphanage and brings back Aadhya to Shah house. Ansh, Mahi and Aarya are happy to have Aadhya back, but the other family members, specially Dolly, don't want her there.
Aadhya decides to irritate the Shah family so Anupamaa will drop her back at Dwarka. However, Anupamaa stands up for Aadhya and shuts everyone down. Soon Anupamaa gets a many years old letter of Anuj indicating his persumed death while Prem starts living as a tanent in Shah house sharing room with Ansh thus resulting in their constant altercations and former starts working as a chef in "Anu Ki Rasoi". While Mahi gets infatuated to Prem the latter gets infatuated with Aadhya. Aadhya's growing fondness with Ansh starts making Mahi insecure while former decides to return dwarka after paying off Anupamaa's debt.
Production
Development
In February 2020, Rajan Shahi, the producer of Aai Kuthe Kay Karte , announced his plan to produce its Hindi remake, Anupamaa, stating, "This interesting concept around a mother's journey has been so inspirational that Star wants to bring it in Hindi too". [11]
To celebrate Raksha Bandhan in 2020, the cast of the series created a special song titled Aaj Rakhi Nau Tyohaar Chhe (Today is Raksha Bandhan's festival). This unique song blended Gujarati, Hindi, and English languages. [12]
The story took a five-year leap on 20 December 2023, with Anuj and Anupamaa's divorce and Anupamaa visiting the USA. On 15 July 2024, the show took another leap of six months showcasing Anupamaa and Anuj separately living miserable lives without Aadhya. On 14 October 2024, the show took another generation leap of fifteen years and story started focusing on a grown-up Aadhya and Prem as leads along with Anupamaa and Anuj.
Casting
Casting of the series started in February 2020 with Rupali Ganguly being cast as the protagonist Anupamaa Shah, returning to television after seven years. [13] She said, "When I joined Anupamaa, I was a little plump and I told our producer Rajan Shahi that you want a heroine and at this age, let me lose some weight. But the producer told me that he didn't want a heroine but a mother instead. ‘I want a mother and you are perfect for the role because mothers are like this." [14]
Sudhanshu Pandey was cast as Anupamaa's husband Vanraj Shah, [15] Paras Kalnawat, Muskaan Bamne and Aashish Mehrotra as Anupamaa's children Samar Shah, Pakhi Shah and Paritosh Shah respectively, Alpana Buch and Arvind Vaidya being cast as Anupamaa's in-laws Leela Shah and Hasmukh Shah respectively. [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] Later Madhavi Gogate and Mehul Nisar joined as Anupamaa's mother and brother, Kanta Joshi and Bhavesh Joshi, respectively, while Ekta Saraiya, Paresh Bhatt, Stuti Zakarde and Bhakti Chauhan were cast to play Dolly Shah Dhamecha, Sanjay Dhamecha, Meenakshi Dhamecha and Jhilmil respectively. [22] [23] [24] However, days before the filming resumed after the COVID-19 outbreak in late June, Additi Gupta was confirmed to be infected with the virus. [25] [26] She was replaced by Madalsa Sharma and the sequences earlier shot by Gupta as Vanraj's girlfriend Kavya Gandhi, were reshot by Sharma. [27]
Days after premiering in July 2020, Shekhar Shukla was cast to play Leela's brother Jignesh while Nidhi Shah was cast opposite Mehrotra as Kinjal Dave and Tassnim Sheikh and Farooq Saeed were signed to play Kinjal's parents Rakhi Dave and Pramod Dave respectively. [28] [29] [30] [31] The next month Anagha Bhosale was cast opposite Kalnawat as Nandini Iyer while Rushad Rana was cast as Kavya's husband Aniruddh Gandhi. [32] [33] In April 2021, Apurva Agnihotri [34] joined the cast as Dr. Advait Khanna for a cameo and completed his role in June 2021. [35]
In June 2021, rumours of "conflicts and groupism on sets" arose between cast members, one group led by Ganguly with Buch, Mehrotra and Bamne, and another by Pandey, with Sharma, Kalnawat and Bhosale which cast denied. [36] [37]
In late August 2021 Gaurav Khanna was cast opposite Ganguly as Anuj Kapadia. [38]
In September 2021, Deepak Gheewala was cast to play Anuj's helper Gopichandra Karodia. [39] Also that month, Varun Sharma was cast to play a cameo as Nandini's ex-boyfriend and obsessive lover Rohan and he finished off his role in October 2021. Next, Savita Prabhune replaced Madhavi Gogate (due to the latter's death) as Kanta Joshi in late October 2021. [40] In December 2021, actress Aneri Vajani joined the cast to play Anuj's sister, Malvika Kapadia. [41]
In January 2022, there were rumours of "ego clashes" between Pandey and Khanna, which they both publicly denied. [42]
In March 2022, Anagha Bhosale playing Nandini announced her decision to take a break from acting, [43] and later quit acting forever, ending Nandini's character and shot her last scene in February 2022. [44] [45] Later that month, Aneri Vajani playing Malvika also announced that her role was just a cameo and right now its shown on a long break due to viewers' disconnect with her role's negative development. [46]
In May 2022, singer Mika Singh made a special appearance as Anuj's friend in Anupamaa and Anuj's Mehendi and Sangeet ceremony and to promote his upcoming show Swayamvar – Mika Di Vohti . [47] During that month, Aneri Vajani announced her decision to participate in Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 12 and quit the series permanently. [48] [49]
Later that month, Rohit Bakshi [50] and Ashlesha Sawant [51] were cast to play Anuj's brother amd sister-in-law, Ankush Kapadia and Barkha Mehta Kapadia respectively while Alma Hussein [52] and Adhik Mehta [53] [54] were cast to play Barkha's daughter and brother, Sara Kapadia and Adhik Mehta opposite Kalnawat and Bamne respectively. In an interview after being cast as Adhik Mehta, Mehta revealed that "he earlier auditioned for the role of Samar (which eventually locked to Kalnawat) in the casting phase of the series but it didn't happened at that time". [55] Child artist Asmi Deo was also cast as an orphan Anu but her track was put on hold and resumed in July 2022 as Anuj and Anupamaa's adopted daughter. [56]
In July 2022, Paras Kalnawat signed on to appear on the dance-based reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 10 on rival network Colors TV. Anupamaa makers objected and terminated his contract overnight on 26 July 2022. [57] Kalnawat revealed that "after Bhosale's exit his character never evolved, and that he was unhappy with his role being reduced to a mere family member standing in background with nothing to do anything." [57] [58] [59] [60] Later after facing several controversies related to the series, makers replaced Kalnawat overnight by Sagar Parekh in the same month. [61]
In September 2022, Alma Hussein who was cast opposite Kalnawat also quit the series, saying she was unhappy with the lack of character development and shot her last scene in early August 2022. [62] [63]
In November 2022, Nishi Saxena and Rishabh Jaiswal were cast to portray Dimple and her husband Nirmit. However, Jaiswal exited the show in the same month because his role was only a cameo appearance of Dimple's husband who abandons her after her rape and Saxena went on to be paired with Sagar Parekh.
In January 2023, actress Chhavi Pandey was cast to do an extended cameo of Anu's biological mother, Maya, who wrapped up in July 2023 following her character's death. [64] In May 2023, Apara Mehta was cast as Anuj's mother Malti Devi, while her daughter Khushali Jariwala played her younger version on screen and she quit the series prior to the first leap in December 2023. [65] [66]
In August 2023, Ekta Saraiya, who portrayed Vanraj's sister Dolly, quit the series for her show Kyunki... Saas Maa Bahu Beti Hoti Hai on Zee TV. In same month, Viraj Kapoor entered the show as Ankush's illegitimate son Romil Kapadia. [67]
In October 2023, Sagar Parekh, who replaced Paras Kalnawat in the role of Samar in July 2022, was confirmed exiting the show with storyline showcasing Samar's death due to decreasing TRP ratings of the show. [68] [69] [70] In the following month actor and dancer Kunwar Amar joined the cast as Tapish opposite Nishi Saxena. [71]
In December 2023, the show took its first leap of five years. Post-leap, child actress Asmi Deo was replaced by Aurra Bhatnagar Badoni to play the adolescent version of Aadhya Kapadia [72] while Savita Prabhune's character Kanta was shown dead thus marking an end to her character. Child actor Trishaan Shah was cast to play Samar and Dimple's son Ansh Shah. [72] The same month Muskan Bamne portraying Pakhi quit the series after 3 years as "she doesn't wish to play mother at such a young age and wants to move ahead in her career" [73] and was later replaced by Chandni Bhagwanani [74] while child actor Aadhya Barot was cast as her daughter Ishani Mehta the same month. [75] Sukirti Kandpal too entered the show as Anuj's fiancée Shruti Ahuja the same month. [76] Following this Rituraj Singh and Dishi Duggal too entered the show as Yashpal and his mother. [77] [78] In January 2024, Child actress Princy Prajapati replaced baby Noorain Khan as the child version of Kinjal and Paritosh's daughter Aarya, while Pahal Chaudhary was cast to play Kavya's daughter Mahi. In January 2024, Vaquar Shaikh entered the show as Yashpal's younger brother Yashdeep, while Parakh Madan entered the show in February 2024 as Diya.
In April 2024, Aashish Mehrotra, who portrayed Paritosh, quit the series the following month after playing it for four years [79] to participate in Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 14 [80] and was replaced by Gaurav Sharma the same month. [81] [82] In July 2024, Sukirti Kandpal aka Shruti's track ended marking her exit. [83] In same month show took its second leap, a small leap of six months and Nitin Babu and Akshita Tiwari entered the show as Sagar and Nandita respectively [84] while Sonal Khilwani entered the show as the adult Meenakshi Dhamecha thus replacing Stuti Zakarde. [85]
On 28 August 2024, Sudhanshu Pandey announced his decision to quit the series after playing it for four years via his Instagram handle and said "his last appearance was in Raksha Bandhan special episodes and he will continue entertaining his audience through new roles." [86] [87]
In 2024 after Sudhanshu Pandey quit the show, Ekta Saraiya Mehta, who played Dolly Shah Dhamecha from 2020 to 2023, rejoined and reprised her role the following month while Madalsa Sharma playing Kavya also quit the series as she felt she was "sidelined after removal of grey element from her character". [88] Later she said about Rupali Ganguly "being two-faced and speaking about her on back which hurted her genuinely" thus confirming the earlier reported split amongst cast members in 2021. [89]
The show took its first generation leap on 14 October 2024 with Aurra Bhatnagar Badoni being replaced by Alisha Parveen [90] [8] as grown-up Aadhya playing the new female lead whilst Shivam Khajuria got cast opposite her as Prem Kothari, the new male lead. [91] [92] Prior to leap Nishi Saxena portraying Dimple too exited the series as the storyline showcased her character's death [93] while Kunwar Amar playing Tapish too announced his exit. [94] Gaurav Sharma too got replaced by Manish Naggdev as older Paritosh due to Sharma's refusal to play and get typecast "as a father of 21-years-old Aarya". [95] [96] Additionally, Nidhi Shah, who has portrayed Kinjal since the show's inception, announced her exit before the leap as she "wants to focus more on other platforms and lead roles" and got replaced by Milloni Kapadia as older Kinjal. [92] [97] [98] Chandni Bhagwanani too announced her exit from the show prior to the leap as she too "didn't wanted to play mother to a 22-years-old Ishani" and got replaced by Krutika Desai as older Pakhi. [99] [100] [98] Child actors Trishaan Shah, Princy Prajapati, Aadhya Barot and Pahal Chaudhary got replaced by Varun Kasturia, Ishita Modi, Vidushi Tiwari and Spreha Chatterjee as grown-up Ansh, Aarya, Ishani and Mahi respectively. [101] [98]
Filming
Set in Gujarat, the series is mainly shot at Film City in Mumbai. [102] [103] Some initial sequences were shot in Ahmedabad during early March 2020. [104]
On 13 February 2021, the filming was halted for a day for sanitisation when Paras Kalnawat playing Samar, tested positive for COVID-19 virus. [105] The sequences of Kalnawat with Anagha Bhosale playing Nandini were cancelled including proposal sequence of their characters and were replanned until his recovery and return in late February 2021. However he shot some sequences from his home under his and his mother's quarantine period. [106] [107]
On 2 April 2021, Rupali Ganguly, Sudhanshu Pandey and Aashish Mehrotra who portray Anupamaa, Vanraj and Paritosh respectively and producer Rajan Shahi tested positive for COVID-19. Certain sequences were postponed and the story focused more on the characters Rakhi, Kavya and Leela while Ganguly, Pandey and Mehrotra shot for few sequences from their homes. [108] [109] A few days later, Tassnim Sheikh, Alpana Buch and Nidhi Shah also tested positive for COVID-19 and the story focussed more on Samar, Nandini and Pakhi's characters. [110]
On 13 April 2021, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray announced a sudden curfew due to increased Covid cases in Maharashtra, while the production halted from 14 April 2021. [111] Hence, the production location was soon shifted temporarily to Silvassa alongside other shows of the production house. [112] In June 2021, the Maharashtra government permitted shooting within the state with certain restrictions, following which the whole cast and crew returned to Mumbai on 8 June 2021 and resumed shooting the following day. [113]
Release
Initially scheduled to premiere on 16 March 2020, it was postponed due to the coronavirus scare. Anupamaa finally premiered on 13 July 2020 on Star Plus, replacing Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyaar Ke . [114] Since 2 October 2022, it is broadcast daily along with other Star Plus's shows. [115]
