How Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi made Smriti Irani a household name, from TV to Amethi
Mangalore Today News Network
New Delhi, July 9, 2025: She was like the first line of defence between the world and her Gujarati family, the rich, industrialist Virani clan. Smriti Irani as Tulsi Virani welcomed the world into into her home which housed a multigenerational, joint family and stood on guard on the door to protect her loved ones, preserve tradition, and practice selflessness in her eight-year stint as the adarsh bahu in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
While Smriti Irani was a relatively lesser known face at the time, she was a former contestant at the 1998 Miss India contest, had done a few advertisments, and featured in supporting roles in TV serials.
But when the clock struck 10.30 pm on July 3, 2000, Monday, the actor appeared on the small screen and invited viewers into the world of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi on the TV channel Star Plus. That was when the first episode of the soap opera, which went on to become one of the longest and most popular shows in Indian television history aired.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi made 10.30 pm the new prime time after it was not given the cherished 9 pm slot on the channel. Before the show arrived and captured the imagination of the Indian audiences, people would generally call it a night at 10.30 pm. Post Kyunki, India would be awake to watch its adarsh bahu navigate the highs and lows of a married life in a joint family.
What Was The OG Kyunki About
Virani family scion Mihir Virani, played by Amar Upadhyay, falls in love with his childhood friend Tulsi (Smriti Irani), who is the daughter of the family’s priest. Despite initial friction from Mihir’s mother Savita (Apara Mehta), the young and brave couple are able to cross the gulf of class difference between them.
How Tulsi navigates aspersions, conspiracies, and constant attempts by her mother-in-law to pull her part from Mihir, without compromising her dignity, upholding "Indian values" and submitting to bullying... All of this and more is what made the character larger than life for the small screen and yet, relatable with a common daughter-in-law sitting on the other side of the screen.
Throw in a wardrobe full of traditional seedha-palla Gujarati sarees, jewellery, and bindi on the adarsh bahu, who would be armed with loads of glycerine, melodrama, loud background music with long aalaaps, and those repetitive shots of slaps... And, your audience is hooked, so hooked, booked, and cooked that they are waiting for the Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi reboot.
Tulsi was sweet, sanskari, sensitive and most importantly non-sexy. Perfect as the India’s adoptive bahu. She would probably be Renuka Shahane’s Pooja from Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! had she not fallen off that damn staircase. (Cue: Pehli kiran jab se uge, bhabhi meri tabse jage)
When The Bahu Became The Saas
In its eight-year run on Star Plus, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi was a rage. From Tulsi’s pregnancy, Mihir’s death, Tulsi’s remarriage, to Mihir’s comeback on public demand, the show saw lots of peaks during its initial years. Roughly two years after its premiere, the show took a 20-year leap in 2002, which marked the advent of a new generation of actors coming in to take it forward.
What didn’t change was Smriti Irani’s dominance on the landscape of Kyunki as the wiser, more mature and responsible Tulsi Virani, who handholds the nayi peedhi into the world. When it’s revealed that Mihir (Inder Kumar/ Ronit Roy) has an illegitimate son Karan (Hiten Tejwani) with Mandira (Mandira Bedi), tell me one soul who didn’t want to strangle the adarsh beta Mihir for cheating on his ideal wife and keeping it a secret for decades!
Despite the hurt and heartbreak, Tulsi eventually accepts Karan as a member of the Virani family. She is also the same woman who channels her inner goddess (with a gun, since times have changed) to shoot her estranged and abuser of a son Ansh Gujral (Akashdeep Sehgal) to death. She was Mother India too.
Then, after another time jump or two, Tulsi became Baa, the grandmother, a title that was reserved for Sudha Shivpuri, the OG Baa of Kyunki.
In 2008, curtains came down on Kyunki and it, as is oft-repeated these days, marked the end of an era. It was.
Smriti Irani: From Abhineta To Neta
While she was still working on Kyunki, Smriti Irani, nee Malhotra, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2003. She comes from a family of Swayamsevaks. She had been part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP’s ideological mentor, since her childhood days.
As someone who worked herself up from the ground level, having put posters on walls during campaigning and working in "the trenches", Smriti Irani had a good one-on-one experience with people and her popularity after Kyunki was through the roof.
But there was little success initially. During the 14th Lok Sabha elections, she contested unsucessfully against Congress heavyweight Kapil Sibal in the Chandni Chowk seat in 2004. Despite the loss, the BJP appointed Smriti Irani as vice-president of the party’s Maharashtra youth wing.
In six years, she rose to the higher rungs of the ladder as a BJP national secretary and also national president of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha. In 2011, she was sent to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat.
In 2014, the BJP fielded Smriti Irani as its candidate from the Amethi Lok Sabha seat against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. While Rahul Gandhi defeated Smriti Irani by a margin of 1.07 lakh votes, she was appointed as the Minister of Human Resource Development in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first Cabinet.
Since then, Smriti Irani has served as the Minister of Textiles (2016), with an additional charge of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in 2017. Two years later, she won the Amethi seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, emerging a winner over Rahul Gandhi.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, Smriti Irani lost to Congress loyalist Kishore Lal Sharma in Amethi by a margin of 1,67 lakh votes.
Be it her educational qualifications, her handling of the Rohith Vemula suicide, or her stance on paid period leave, Smriti Irani often made headlines.
Smriti Irani Back As Tulsi Irani For Kyunki Reboot
During an interview on the campaign trail in 2014, Smriti Irani had once said that she will "never return to the entertainment world", with a caveat: "but you never know what will happen in the future".
After a lot of "Will They, Won’t They", Smriti Irani and producer Ekta Kapoor recently announced that Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is returning to the small screen as a reboot. The show went off air in 2008. Smriti Irani, who is now also a prominent BJP leader, will be stepping back behind the camera once again. The Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi reboot will premiere on the same channel in the same time slot on July 29 with Smriti Irani back as Tulsi Virani.
In a statement issued on Monday, Smriti Irani said some journeys come full circle-not for nostalgia, but for purpose.
"Returning to Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is not just a step back into a role, but a return to a story that redefined Indian television and reshaped my own life. It gave me more than commercial success-it gave me a connection with millions of homes, a place in the emotional fabric of a generation.
"In the 25 years since, I’ve straddled two powerful platforms-media and public policy-each with its own impact, each demanding a different kind of commitment. Today, I stand at a crossroads where experience meets emotion, and creativity meets conviction. I return not just as an actor, but as someone who believes in the power of storytelling to spark change, preserve culture, and build empathy. In contributing to this next chapter, I hope to honour the legacy of Kyunki-and help shape a future where India’s creative industries aren’t just celebrated, but truly empowered," she said.
Kyunki was a darling of at least three generations, who would sit in rapt attention to catch the show when it aired and also during its re-runs during the dreary afternoons. While there still might be two generations who were regular viewers of the soap opera, it would be interesting to see what the makers do to hook the new generation, especially Gen Z. With the show being simulcast on the channel’s sister streamer JioHotstar, we’d say the battle is already half won.