Mrs. Shah had always secretly harboured an ambition – to be known not just as Mr. Shah’s wife, but as Minal Shah, the jewellery designer. However, tradition and her conservative upbringing meant that she never acted on that ambition. That was until she discovered a show on Star Plus that completely changed her perspective of the role of women. Inspired, she convinced her husband to let her become a partner in the business and design her own range of jewellery. When our team met her, Minal Shah’s designs were the jewellery store’s biggest draw. A television soap opera was the push she needed to go from traditional housewife to unique designer.
We Care
The real stories that inspire us
The Story of Mrs. Shah
In 2009, we met Mrs. Shah, the wife of a local jeweller in Surat.
“As a leading media network, we believe that the stories we tell have the potential to fire a billion imaginations. Every day, we do our best to create stories that inspire the change we want to see in the world. Ever so often we come across a story – like Mrs. Shah’s – which inspires us.”
The leadership team
We cherish listening to the stories of impact our shows have on its participants and viewers. It reminds us why we’re doing what we do.
Take the story of Shimla’s Shipra Khanna. Married at 19, Shipra faced harassment over dowry before being suddenly evicted from her husband’s home and barred from visiting her two children. She began cooking as a way to escape the frustration and misery of a lengthy custody battle, and became a competitor on Season 2 of MasterChef India. At the end of the season, she walked away with the title, a cash prize of Rs 1 crore, and her own cooking show on Star Plus. She’s now a celebrity chef who runs her own restaurant in Ahmedabad.
Whether it’s the four generations of women from an Indore family who were inspired to take the pallu off their heads after watching ‘Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai’, or the parents who realised that they need to be more diligent when finding a husband for their daughter after seeing the grim realities of domestic abuse in 'Saubhagyavati Bhav', every story reinforces our commitment to create content that influences society positively. We believe it’s our responsibility to be an agent of progressive change, to make life better for as many people as possible: a responsibility we take very seriously.
