I'm too nervous and tense to have fun

This time, however, she has a lot more to pray for. Two of her most prestigious projects are about to take off. And Ekta can't think straight. Let alone party.

After buying herself a whole wardrobe and slimming down to fit into them for her planned birthday Ekta has decided to postpone the proposed party. Something she has never done before.

"I always have my birthday party on 11 July every year. But this time I've postponed it to 19 July. I'm too nervous and tense to have fun until Mission Istanbul releases and Mahabharat gets on air. Since both are big clutter-breaking project projects for me I'm too tense to have fun until they're out."

Says Ekta, "On Friday I'm in Tirupathi, then on Saturday, my birthday, I'll visit the Siddhi-Vinayak temple and have a quiet dinner with my close friends. The birthday bash will just have to wait."

She looks back on the year with much gratitude. "God has been kind. There's this inner urge to keep pushing myself beyond given parameters. I just keep moving ahead. There's no formula for success. Ideas come instinctively to me."

She laughs off the backbiting and bickering that Balajee has to face. "There are people from the television industry warning actors that we torture our actors. Well sometimes we do work for 30 hours at a stretch. That's when we have a deadline to meet. And when those actors don't mind why should others?"