5 best Ekta Kapoor villains who served hair twirls, salty kheer and jail time

Love her or hate her, Ekta Kapoor, the queen of Indian television — truly doesn’t care. She’s spent decades revolutionising Indian entertainment, crafting a legacy so enduring that many of us associate our childhoods with the serials we watched beside our mothers. Her shows had it all: melodrama, whirlwind romances, reincarnations, doomed weddings and, of course, unforgettable villains.

Yes, villains. There was something so distinct about an Ekta Kapoor villain, that you would just know it’s a villain. Especially, the women. There was no nuance ever: They were straight up evil, mixing salt in the kheer, twirling hair and creating problems, whenever they could. But they were so classic, that later, the actresses found it hard to move out of the role too.

You heard the music in your head too. You see the hair twirl. Komolika Basu, played by Urvashi Dholakia, was a household name. From sleeveless blouses and sarees, with hair curls hanging precariously, she moved to glitzy ball gowns, fur coats (after she got the power of attorney), and then returned to sarees later in the show. She had her vague moments of being good here and there, but clearly, the creators liked her evil, and so she died in the show as an evil person. Toodles.

Another character who was brought to ‘wreck’ households: Pallavi Aggarwal, played by Shweta Kawatra. She did it all, and with an evil smile to match. And she went up against Sakshi Tanwar’s righteous Parvati, who after her millionth try, finally triumphed against Pallavi. Whew.

Every '90s kid remembers Mandira — even if they never watched Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Played first by Mandira Bedi, she slithered into Mihir’s life (then Amar Upadhyay) right when he conveniently forgot his wife, Tulsi. A little memory loss, a full-blown affair (gasp!), and voila — drama. But then, as Ekta would have it, Mihir’s memory returned… and so did his morals. Back to Tulsi he went.

As if Mandira was going to let that slide.

The beauty of an Ekta Kapoor villain: By the end, they abandon every shred of conscience. Murder, kidnapping, emotional blackmail — it’s all on the table. And Mandira? Oh, she ticked every box… before finally landing in jail.

Yes, that name, makeup, and bindis spoke for itself. Ramola, played by Sudha Chandran, didn’t stop at anything, including sending her son’s actual mother to an asylum and trying to kill her own daughter-in-law, Shaina, played by Mouli Ganguly.

Okay, fine — she occasionally showed a flicker of nuance, right before she tried to wreck everyone’s lives. With those kohl-drenched eyes (textbook villain alert), she claimed it was all for the family. And in her own gloriously twisted way, maybe it was. But instead of protecting them, she mostly just left a trail of emotional carnage and dramatic monologues.