Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai

Premise

The series follows generational stories of Akshara Maheshwari and Naitik Singhania, Naira Singhania and Kartik Goenka, Advocate Akshara Goenka and her story with Dr. Abhimanyu Birla and later on with Abhinav Sharma and Advocate Abhira Sharma and Advocate Armaan Poddar and their struggles balancing their married lives amongst their children and extended family members in a Marwari setup against the backdrop of Udaipur.

Plot

Akshara and Naitik are a happily married couple blessed with their two children – Naksh and Naira. As times throws them challenges like Naitik slipping to coma and Akshara handling business and little Naksh in his absence, them getting his father Rajshekhar married to his doctor Devyani, a domestic abuse survivor, after the death of his biological mother Gayatri, them getting ousted from home after Naitik's uncle Mahendra dies and raising the children away in Cape Town and setting up their successful restaurant business and their return to home after several years, Naksh's passionate relationship with Nayantara and the heartbreaking breakup at wedding altar and a teenaged Naira fleeing to Rishikesh due to a misunderstanding regarding her friend's death and coming back home after several years, their love and understanding surviving these tests of time.

As Akshara dies in an accident, the story moves forward with grown up Naira and Kartik. Misunderstandings tests their love as Naira battles with a brain clot and infertility after the death of their first child while Kartik battles to create his own identity as he gets to know about his biological mother Saumya dying due to her mental illness and his father Manish and step-mother Swarna hided this truth from him and his sister Keerti so that they doesn't form wrong interpretation for their mother and Swarna sacrificed her own son Shubham for same. Kartik and Naira get blessed with a son Kairav and a daughter, also named Akshara but Naira dies in an accident and a depressed Kartik meets Sirat, a boxer and Naira's lookalike who immediately bonds with his little children as a mother. They eventually fall in love and marries and get blessed with a daughter Aarohi. However their deaths causes a strain in relationship of the sisters as the truth about Naira and Sirat gets revealed turning Aarohi possessive for her mother.

Story now moved forwards with now grown up Akshara, an aspiring and passionate singer and Abhimanyu. After initial confusion around Aarohi being the prospective bride, the two gets married while Aarohi too marries Abhimanyu's half-brother Neil. But tragedy strikes when a pregnant Aarohi loses Neil and a depressed Abhimanyu blames Akshara for it and divorces a pregnant Akshara who eventually finds solace with Abhinav in Kasauli and gives birth to her son Abhir and starts practicing her law. Soon Abhinav dies only to be revealed that Akshara is pregnant with his child. Akshara and Abhimanyu decides to reconcile but Aarohi's death banishes them from the family for the sake of Aarohi's daughter Ruhi. Soon Akshara is left all alone once again when Abhimanyu and Abhir too die and she dedicates her life to her daughter Abhira in Mussoorie.

Production

Development

Filming of the show began on 11 September 2008. It was launched at Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, Rajasthan. In January 2009, the series was promoted through a campaign at six main cities by StarPlus along with Jagran Solutions. A contest was held in the country among over 1000 married couples out of which fifty of them were selected through events like quizzes and on air test on radios. They were made to remarry with the rituals along with the games and events held in Rambagh Palace.

In January 2010, a sequence was shot without any dialogue, with only background music used during dramatic scenes when the Singhania family learn that the character Akshara motivates the love between her sister-in-law Nandini and Naitik's friend Mohit, against them.

In January 2013, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai was sent notice by channel for its ending due to decreasing ratings. However it received extension until June 2013 while the ratings rose and the decision of ending was dropped. Besides, twice again it received notice for ending but soon when the ratings increased after it, the plan was dropped and the series continued.

During November 2014, lead Hina Khan could not attend shooting for a few days due to her other work schedules and the track was altered for her absence. In December 2014, a scene where characters Naman and Karishma kiss was cut from the broadcast to avoid offending the show's audience.

The show took its first leap of 4 years on 30 November 2012 after the car accident of Naitik as he slips into a coma. It then took a leap of 10 years on 30 March 2015 after Kaveri banished Akshara from the house owing to Mahendra Pratap's death. Then a leap of some years was taken on 16 May 2016 after teenage Naira running away from her home fearing imprisonment. Another leap of 2 years was taken on 21 May 2018 after Shubam's death as Swarna ousts her. It took a leap of 5 years on 7 June 2019 after Naira leaves the Goenka house on Kartik's misconception about her. On 18 October 2021, The show took a leap of 8 years where Sirat was shown a single mother to Aarohi and Akshara while Kartik was abroad to drop teenaged Kairav and Vansh to hostels. On 27 October 2021, a leap of 12 years was taken after Kartik and Sirat's deaths and the story started focussing on Abhimanyu and grown up Akshara and Aarohi. On 25 August 2022, the show took a leap of 1 year where Akshara was helping Dr. Kunal's sister, Maya, and was living away from her family and Abhimanyu. On 6 January 2023, show took another leap of 6 years and it was shown that while Akshara is raising her son Abhir after legally marrying Abhinav in Kasauli and Aarohi is raising her and Neil's daughter Ruhi as a single mother post Neil's death with Abhimanyu fulfilling her fatherly responsibilities. On 6 November 2023, show took a leap of 22 years after Aarohi, Abhimanyu and Abhir's deaths and started focussing on Akshara's daughter, Abhira, Armaan and grown up Ruhi. On 19 May 2025, the show took a leap of seven years after Abhira and Armaan's separation.

Casting

Hina Khan was cast to play Akshara Singhania, making her acting debut. Khan stated that she knew nothing about acting while signing the series quoting, "I didn't learn acting from anywhere. I think it's because of luck that I landed up in TV. Even after that I had to do a lot of hard work. It was more difficult for me when I began acting and straight away I had to perform. I never got to learn". Karan Tacker was initially roped for the role of Naitik, but was replaced by Karan Mehra a day before the promo shoot as Tacker became skeptical. Speaking about it producer Rajan Shahi said, "Karan refused to be a part of the show a day and a half prior to shooting the promo. I needed to hunt for a new face on immediate basis. I accidentally met Karan Mehra, a real life replica of my fictitious character Naitik".

In June 2016, Mehra quit the show, because of health issues. Two sequences were shot before his exit: one was his death track and other was his kidnap track and decision was made to take the story with the kidnapping track. Then, he was replaced by Vishal Singh in August 2016, making his entry with the kidnapping sequence in Switzerland. In November 2016, Hina Khan quit as her character became monotonous for her and she was shown killed in a car accident. Shivangi Joshi playing Naira and Mohsin Khan playing Kartik, who entered in May 2016, became the leads as the story focused on their journey.

In 2012, Sanjay Gandhi playing Mahendra quit due to the issues between him and his co-actors Sonali Verma and Sandeep Mehta who was then replaced by Abhijit Lahiri. The latter also quit after the death of his character in March 2015. In 2012, Urmila Sharma was replaced by Sunitha Rao as Rukmini. In September 2013, Ather Habib playing Shaurya quit as he felt nothing more was there to explore in his character and was replaced by Yash Gera. Gera also quit in 2017 due to the same reason as that of Habib. He was replaced by Sameer Sharma in the spin-off series during March 2019. In December 2013, Sonali Verma quit her role as Gayathri Singhania, because Verma planned to get married and move to the United States. Her character was killed after a fall from a cliff.

In 2015, Aman Sharma playing Anshuman quit as he wanted to search for better opportunities and was replaced by Dheeraj Gumbar who also quit in mid 2016.

In 2015, Ayush Agarwal quit for personal reasons and was replaced by Shamik Abbas. In May 2016, Umang Jain playing Nayantara and her on-screen family members quit as the story started to focus on other tracks after the cancellation of her and Naksh's wedding in the show after Hina Khan playing Akshara refused to play the role of a mother-in-law.

Filming

The series is mainly filmed in Film City, Goregaon in Mumbai. As the story is based in Udaipur of Rajasthan, some scenes were filmed there. In December 2013, a sequence was shot at Wai. Sequences were also filmed in Rishikesh during 2016 and March 2018. In March 2017, the wedding track of Kartik and Naira was filmed in Bikaner, Rajasthan.

The show as also filmed in various foreign locations including Bangkok in 2014, Cape Town in 2015, Hong Kong in 2015, Switzerland in 2016 and Greece in 2017.

On 13 April 2021, Maharashtra's Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a sudden curfew due to increased COVID cases in Maharashtra, while the production halted from 14 April 2021. Production and filming location were soon shifted temporarily from Mumbai to Silvassa along with the shows Anupamaa, Aai Kuthe Kay Karte and Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya 2 of the same production house. After two months of shooting in Silvassa, the team shifted back to Film City, Mumbai on 10 June 2021.

In October 2021, the team flew to Udaipur to shoot initial episodes after the generation leap including introduction sequences.

In April 2022 to May 2022, the team flew to Jaipur to shoot Abhimanyu and Akshara's wedding sequence.

From November 2023 to December 2023, the team shot the initial episodes of fourth generation in Mahabaleshwar, which was used as a dupe for Mussoorie.

Broadcast

The series which was in a continuous production since its premiere was halted indefinitely in March 2020. Owing COVID-19 outbreak in India, the filming of the television series and films were halted on 19 March 2020, expected to resume the works from 1 April 2020 and the series airing was halted on 25 March 2020 after the bank episodes got over. However, later on imposing the nationwide lockdown, which was extending with the increasing cases, filming could not be resumed since March end. After three months, the shooting of the series resumed on 26 June 2020 and airing resumed from 13 July 2020.

The production once again halted on 24 August 2020 when the cast Sachin Tyagi, Swati Chitnis and Samir Onkar along with four crew members were tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and resumed with others on 28 August 2020. Since 2 October 2022, it is broadcast daily along with other Star Plus's shows.

Spin-off

In 2019, On Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai's completion of 10 years, a spin-off series, Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyaar Ke, premiered on 18 March 2019 starring Rhea Sharma and Shaheer Sheikh. The series portrayed the life of Naman and Karishma's daughter and Naira's younger step cousin Mishti, portrayed by Sharma alongside Abir portrayed by Sheikh.

Crossovers

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai has had several crossover episodes with various shows. They are as follows:

On 28 December 2009, the show had a crossover with Sapna Babul Ka...Bidaai.

On 24 August 2012, the show had a crossover episode with Diya Aur Baati Hum on the occasion of the completions of 1000 episodes and Naksh's first birthday.

On 3 March 2016, actress Deepika Singh as Sandhya from Diya Aur Baati Hum made an entry during Naira's kidnap sequence.

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyaar Ke had an integration from 12 March 2019 to 16 March 2019. Rhea Sharma and Kaveri Priyam as grown-up versions of Mishti and Kuhu respectively introduced during the integration.

From 26 March 2022 to 28 March 2022, Anupamaa from Anupamaa, attended Akshara and Abhimanyu's engagement.

From 13 January 2024 to 15 January 2024, the show had a crossover with Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si, during Makar Sankranti celebration.

On 19 August 2024, the show had another crossover with team Anupamaa on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.

Television specials

Rishton Ka Utsav (2018)

A special segment named Rishton Ka Utsav aired from 26 November 2018 to 5 December 2018 where Kartik and Naira organize a unique festival which brings all generations with most of the family members of the show through all these years come together and celebrate their reunion. This segment also marked the entry of Deblina Chatterjee as Gayatri Deora replacing Kanchi Singh who quit the show in 2017.

Ravivaar With Star Parivaar (2022)

The cast of Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai participated as a team in the musical game show Ravivaar With Star Parivaar. It competed with the teams of other Star Plus's shows. Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai emerged as the winner of the show winning the trophy and a prize money of 10 lac rupees.

Reception

Critical reception

The Indian Express stated, "Simple story, simple treatment, easy pace, small tiffs, grouse, grief, happiness, sadness, celebrations, rituals, customs but no melodrama and no scheming and plotting....that's every day life beautifully captured and which pleases eyes, ears and other senses. Not that it has not resorted to TRP gimmicks like misunderstanding, pregnancy and miscarriage to come out of its lows, but the show has chronicled post-marriage journey of an arranged married couple quite well". They also quoted, "There is a sense of positivity and reality in the show, that no other serial offers on the small screen".

Praising the two shows Bidaii and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai of Rajan Shahi's Director's Kut Production as game changers of Starplus which do not have excessive camera moves and mother-in-law-daughter-in-law melodramas unlike previously aired dramas, The Times of India stated, "The shows adequately highlighted the quintessential emotions with loads of romanticism and simplicity in story-telling".

Speaking on the success of the series, The New Indian Express said, "Like most successful television series in our country, "Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai" has always banked heavily on the great Indian family. However, the show, along with its cast, has changed over the decade, to accommodate changing times. Perhaps that is where the winning formula lies—in retaining its old core values in an ever-changing set-up".

Impact

Shoma Munshi in her book Prime Time Soap Operas on Indian Television said the show has "simplicity and highly emotional content" and was noted for placing female characters in the historical tradition of a large joint family.

This Hindi soap opera is the longest-running Indian television soap opera. It was the first Hindi show to cross 2,500 episodes. It completed 3,000 episodes on 11 September 2019 creating a history in the Indian television. On 1 September 2021, It completed 3500 episodes. On 4 March 2023, it completed 4000 episodes successfully. The show completed 4500 episodes on 23rd May 2024.

On 3rd December 2025, it completed 5000 episodes successfully.

Hina Khan participated in the 'Power of 49' campaign, in which soap opera actors used their influence to urge women to vote. Khan was paid with ₹1 to 1.25 Lacks per episode as of in 2015 and 2016 making her one of the highest paid Indian television actress.

In 2020, it became the third most tweeted Indian television show on Twitter.

Awards