Shakti – Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki

Encyclopedia

Shakti – Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki transl. Strength – feeling of existence is an Indian social drama television series that premiered on 30 May 2016 on Colors TV. Produced by Rashmi Sharma Telefilms, it initially starred Vivian Dsena and Rubina Dilaik. It currently stars Jigyasa Singh and Simba Nagpal.

Plot

Set in Punjab, the story begins with Maninder, who tries to bury his newborn daughter, Soumya. He is caught by his wife Nimmi who saves their daughter and warns him.

Eight years later

Soumya is a quiet and simple girl. Her sister Surbhi is bubbly and happy-go-lucky, and gets all the love and attention in the family.

Ten years later

Soumya and Surbhi have grown up. Surbhi decides to teach spoilt troublemaker, Harman Singh, a lesson. Vengeful, Harman decides to kidnap Surbhi but ends up kidnapping Soumya. To avoid social embarrassment, Harak orders Harman to marry Soumya. They marry and eventually fall in love with each other.

On learning that she is intersex having a complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, Soumya informs Harman, who is enraged. Preeto finds out about Soumya and exiles her to a kinnar society. Soumya and Harman adopt an orphan Aditya. Preeto reveals Soumya’s identity and the orphanage takes Aditya away.

Slowly, Harman starts falling for Soumya for who she is and not just for her sexuality. Surbhi and Varun get married, Soumya and Harman reunite. Veeran, Varun and Ballu beat Soumya and Harman and throw them in river. They are taken to the hospital but end up losing their memory.

With no previous memories of one another, their relationship starts off on mutual dislike, but later they become friends and later fall for each other once again. Eventually, they recall everything and unite. Pregnant, Surbhi returns from Delhi. Varun attacks her and she dies after giving birth to Soham.

Soumya takes Soham away and searches for work to be able to take care of him. She gets the job of being Vedant’s caretaker.

Vedant starts falling for Soumya and confesses his feelings but she rejects him. He falsely frames Harman to get him jailed and asks Soumya to fake marry him in exchange of his freedom. Helpless, Soumya agrees. Harman assumes that Soumya cheated on him and marries Mahi in jealousy.

Two months later

Harman is suffering from liver problems due to excessive drinking and blames his family when he learns about Mahi’s pregnancy.

Vedant pushes Harman off a cliff, being arrested in the process, while Harman dies. Mahi gives birth to an intersex child. On learning the child’s identity, Mahi wants to disown her, however Preeto and Soumya stop her. Soumya takes the child’s responsibility, Harak names her Heer.

Five years later

Heer is a bubbly young girl, loved by Soumya and Preeto but hated by Mahi. Mallika reveals Heer’s identity to Harak. He tries to shoot Heer but she is saved by Soumya, who goes into a coma. Soumya recovers and rejoins her family.

Harak asks Preeto to send Soumya away if she wants him to accept Heer. Soumya agrees to leave the country. On the way to the airport, Soumya meets with an accident and dies.

Sixteen years later

Heer is a happy-go-lucky, beautiful woman who is fiercely protected by her brothers, Soham and Rohan. Heer becomes friends with Virat and the two fall in love. They elope to a temple and marry.

Preeto reveals Heer’s identity to Virat and he begins to hate her. Slowly, Virat reflects on his behaviour and begins to fall for Heer’s true self.

Heer and Virat marry. Simran finds out that she is pregnant and begins to worry. Terrified of society’s perceptions, the family asks Simran to abort the unborn baby. However, Heer stops the abortion as she manages to get Simran and Rohan married.

Angel kidnaps Heer and plans to take her to Bangkok. Parmeet finds Heer but chooses not to save her when Angel discloses that Heer is intersex. Virat rescues Heer from the goons. Tajinder reveals Heer’s identity to the whole family. Devastated, Heer goes to Preeto and confronts her for hiding her true identity.

Angel manipulates Heer to participate in a kinnar ceremony, leaving Virat and his family shocked. The kinnars search for Heer and begin to beat Virat. While attempting to save Virat, Heer falls off a cliff and everyone assumes her to be dead.

Cast

Main

  • Rubina Dilaik as Soumya Singh: Harman’s wife, Nimmi’s daughter, Surbhi’s sister, Soham and Heer’s adoptive mother (2016–2020)
  • Vivian Dsena as Harman Singh: Soumya’s husband, Preeto and Harak’s son, Raavi’s brother, Heer’s father; Soham’s adoptive father (2016–2019)
  • Jigyasa Singh as Heer Singh: Virat’s wife, Soumya’s adoptive child, Mahi and Harman’s daughter, Preeto and Harak’s granddaughter, Kuhu’s caretaker (2020–present)
  • Simba Nagpal as Virat Singh: Heer’s husband, Parmeet and Sant’s son, Daljeet and Simran’s brother (2020–present)

Recurring

  • Kamya Panjabi as Preeto Kaur Singh: Harak’s wife, Harman and Raavi’s mother (2016–present)
  • Sudesh Berry as Harak Singh: Preeto’s husband, Harman and Raavi’s father (2016–present)
  • Bhuvan Chopra as Veeran Singh: Harak’s brother; Shanno’s husband; Sindhu’s father (2016–present)
  • Aarya Rawal as Shanno Singh: Veeran’s wife; Sindhu’s mother (2016–present)
  • Garima Jain/Pooja Singh as Raavi Singh: Preeto and Harak’s daughter, Harman’s sister (2016–present)
  • Ekta Singh as Saaya/Mallika Khanna: Transgender; Milkha’s sister (2016–present)
  • Chhavi Awasthi as Chameli: Transgender (2017–present)
  • Nidhi Bhavsar/Vaani Sharma as Sindhu Singh: Veeran and Shanno’s daughter; Ankush’s wife (2019–present)
  • Sareeka Dhillon as Mahi Singh: Harman’s widow, Heer’s mother (2019–present)
  • Meherzan Mazda as Rohan Singh: Soumya’s adoptive nephew; Simran’s husband (2020–present)
  • Parag Tyagi as DSP Sant Baksh Singh: Parmeet’s husband; Virat, Daljeet and Simran’s father (2020–present)
  • Gauri Tonk/Jasveer Kaur as Parmeet Singh: Sant’s wife, Virat, Daljeet and Simran’s mother (2020–present)
  • Aakash Talwar as Daljeet Singh: Parmeet and Sant’s son; Virat and Simran’s brother; Gurwinder’s husband (2020–present)
  • Ekroop Bedi as Gurwinder Singh: Daljeet’s wife (2020–present)
  • Rachana Mistry as Simran Singh: Parmeet and Sant’s daughter; Virat and Daljeet’s sister; Rohan’s wife (2020–present)
  • Sonam Arora as Angel: Transgender; Heer’s enemy (2020–present)
  • Bhawna Hada/Kaveri Priyam as Dr. Isha: Virat’s friend (2021–present)
  • Puneett Chouksey as Akshay: Jagjit’s brother; Kuhu’s father; Heer’s boss (2021–present)
  • Mahira Khurana as Young Soumya Singh (2016)
  • Tasheen Shah as Young Surbhi Singh (2016)
  • Reena Kapoor as Nimmi Kaur Singh: Anjana’s daughter; Mahinder wife; Soumya and Surbhi’s mother (2016)
  • Emir Shah as Monty: Harman’s friend (2016)
  • Shiwani Chakraborty as Mahima: Harman’s former fiancée (2016)
  • Mahi Sharma as Kalsi: Soumya and Surbhi’s best friend (2016–2017)
  • Mahek Thaakur as Young Sindhu Singh (2016–2017)
  • Kishori Shahane as Sharmani: Transgender (2016–2017)
  • Unknown/Unknown as Kishan Lal Sodhi: Ballu’s father (2016–2018)
  • Roshni Sahota/Iti Kaurav as Surbhi Singh: Nimmi and Maninder’s daughter, Soumya’s sister, Harman and Varun’s former wife, Soham’s mother (2016–2019)
  • Unknown as Anjana Singh: Nimmi’s mother; Soumya and Surbhi’s grandmother (2016–2019)
  • Ayub Khan as Maninder Singh: Nalini’s son; Nimmi’s husband; Soumya and Surbhi’s father (2016–2020)
  • Mamta Luthra as Nalini Singh: Maninder’s mother; Soumya and Surbhi’s grandmother (2016–2020)
  • Lakshya Handa as Varun Singh: Harak and Veeran’s nephew; Surbhi’s former husband, Soham’s father (2016–2020)
  • Kajol Saroj as Kareena: Transgender; Soumya and Heer’s enemy (2016–2020)
  • Unknown/Rishikesh Ingley as Balwinder “Ballu” Sodhi: Raavi’s former husband; Kishan’s son; Chintu’s father (2017–2018)
  • Unknown/Unknown as Chintu Sodhi: Raavi and Ballu’s son (2017–2018)
  • Sara Khan as Mohini: Harak’s former mistress (2017–2018)
  • Anand Goradia as Maharani: Transgender (2017–2019)
  • Krutika Desai Khan as Payal Singh: Preeto and Sukha’s mother (2018)
  • Sonal Handa as Jeet Singh: Motilal’s son; Jasleen’s brother; Raavi’s husband (2018)
  • Amrita Prakash as Jasleen Kaur Singh: Motilal’s daughter; Jeet’s sister; Harman’s childhood friend (2018)
  • Hemant Choudhary as Motilal Singh: Jasleen and Jeet’s father; Harak’s friend (2018)
  • Dheeraj Gumbar as Sumit Kapoor (2018)
  • Sahil Mehta as Sameer Singh (2018)
  • Tiya Gandwani as Dr. Lavneet Kaushal (2018)
  • Alka Mogha as Gopika Singh: Sameer’s mother (2018)
  • Unknown as Dr. Samay Kaushal: Lavneet’s father; Tanvi’s husband (2018)
  • Unknown as Dr. Tanvi Kaushal: Lavneet’s mother; Samay’s wife (2018)
  • Prakash Ramchandani as Nihaal Singh: Harak and Veeran’s brother; Preeto’s former husband (2019)
  • Abigail Jain as Riya (2019)
  • Rohit Roy as Nishant Bhalla (2019); Sunaina’s husband; Garry’s father (2019)
  • Mouli Ganguly as Shruti Bhalla (2019)
  • Jaswant Menaria as Sukhwinder “Sukha” Singh: Payal’s son; Preeto’s brother; Sunaina’s husband; Garry’s father (2019)
  • Shivani Gosain as Sunaina Singh: Sukha’s wife; Garry’s mother (2019)
  • Rohit Chandel as Gurmeet “Garry” Singh: Sunaina and Sukha’s son (2019)
  • Nikita Sharma as Archana Kapoor (2019)
  • Rushad Rana as Advocate Navjot Chaddha (2019)
  • Ronit Roy as Advocate Rajat Singh (2019)
  • Preetika Chauhan as Sneha (2019)
  • Roopal Tyagi as Manasvi Mehat (2019)
  • Tanvi Kishore as Sweety Singh: Varun’s wife (2019)
  • Unknown as Vidhaan Singh: Rekha’s husband; Rohan’s father (2019)
  • Shweta Sinha as Rekha Bansal: Sunil’s daughter; Vedant’s sister; Vidhaan’s wife; Rohan’s mother (2019)
  • Rajesh Puri as Sunil Bansal: Harak and Harman’s business rival; Vedant and Rekha’s father (2019)
  • Ayaz Ahmed as Arjun: Vedant’s friend (2019)
  • Hitanshu Jinsi as Ankush Singh: Sindhu’s husband (2019)
  • Sahil Uppal as Vedant Bansal: Sunil’s son; Rekha’s brother (2019)
  • Preeti Puri as Dr. Gayatri Mathur (2019)
  • Avisha Shahu as Reet Mathur: Gayatri’s daughter; Heer, Rohan and Soham’s friend (2019)
  • Sumaiya Khan as Young Heer Singh (2019–2020)
  • Unknown/Meet Mukhi as Young Rohan Singh (2019–2020)
  • Vivaan Sharma as Young Soham Singh (2019–2020)
  • Kanwarjit Paintal as Baksh Singh: Sant and Tejinder’s father; Virat, Daljeet and Simran’s grandfather (2020)
  • Shiva Gupta as Esha: Heer’s friend (2020)
  • Prerna Panwar as Nutan: Transgender (2020)
  • Sonya Ayodhya as Jharna Narula: Uttam’s daughter; Virat’s former fiancée (2020)
  • Naveen Saini as DIG Uttam Narula: Jharna’s father (2020)
  • Avinash Mukherjee as Soham Singh: Surbhi and Varun’s son; Harman and Soumya’s adoptive son (2020)
  • Sikandar Kharbanda as Shergil: The man who buys Heer (2020)
  • Nimisha Vakharia as Tejinder Singh: Sant’s sister; Virat, Daljeet and Simran’s paternal aunt (2020)
  • Aniruddh Dave as Shyam: Transgender; Angel’s partner (2021)
  • Anahita Jahabaksh as Beeji: Jagjit and Akshay’s mother (2021)
  • Pankaj Bhatia as Jagjit Singh: Beeji’s son; Akshay’s brother; Archana’s husband (2021)
  • Neha Narang as Archana: Jagjit’s wife (2021)

Special appearances

  • Salman Khan to promote Big Boss 10 (2016)
  • Parineeti Chopra and Ayushmann Khurrana to promote Meri Pyaari Bindu (2017)
  • Jay Soni as Bakool Vasavda from Bhaag Bakool Bhaag (2017)
  • Helly Shah as Devanshi Bakshi from Devanshi (2017))
  • Piyush Sahdev as Pavan Bakshi from Devanshi (2017)
  • Varun Kapoor as Dr. Veer Malhotra from Savitri Devi College & Hospital (2017)
  • Swarda Thigle as Dr. Saachi Malhotra/Mishra from Savitri Devi College & Hospital (2017)
  • Vikram Sakhalkar as Dr. Kabir Kapoor from Savitri Devi College & Hospital (2017)
  • Meera Deosthale as Chakor Rajvanshi from Udaan (2017)/(2018)
  • Sahil Uppal as Kunal Singhania from Ek Shringaar-Swabhiman (2017)
  • Sangeita Chauhan as Meghna Singhania from Ek Shringaar-Swabhiman (2017)
  • Sidharth Shukla as Parth Bhanushali from Dil Se Dil Tak (2017)
  • Rashami Desai as Shorvori Parth Bhanushali from Dil Se Dil Tak (2017)
  • Jasmin Bhasin as Teni Bhanushali from Dil Se Dil Tak (2017)
  • Arjun Bijlani as Deep Raj Singh/Deep Raichand from Ishq Mein Marjawan (2018)
  • Aalisha Panwar as Aarohi Raichand from Ishq Mein Marjawan (2018)
  • Ritvik Arora as Ahaan Dhanrajgir from Tu Aashiqui (2018)
  • Sanjay Dutt and Aditi Rao Hydari to promote Bhoomi (2017)
  • Krystle D’Souza as Roopa from Belan Wali Bahu (2018)
  • Harshad Chopda as Aditya Hooda from Bepannah (2018)
  • Jannat Zubair Rahmani as Pankti Dhanrajgir from Tu Aashiqui (2018)
  • Affan Khan as Young Roopendra Singh Vaghela to promote Roop – Mard Ka Naya Swaroop (2018)
  • Ankita Lokhande on Ganesh Chaturthi (2018)
  • Mouni Roy on Ganesh Chaturthi (2018)
  • Gauahar Khan on Ganesh Chaturthi (2018)
  • Shashank Vyas as Roopendra Singh Vaghela from Roop – Mard Ka Naya Swaroop (2018)
  • Avika Gor as Anushka Sangwan from Laado 2 (2018)
  • Drashti Dhami as Nandini Thakur from Silsila Badalte Rishton Ka (2018)
  • Aashish Kaul as Milkha Singh Khanna – Mallika’s brother (2019)
  • Arjit Taneja as Azaan from Bahu Begum (2019)
  • Samiksha Jaiswal as Noor from Bahu Begum (2019)
  • Kunal Jaisingh as Reyansh Khurana from Pavitra Bhagya (2020)
  • Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia as Meher from Choti Sarrdaarni (2020)
  • Siddharth Kumar For Online Promotion of NIIT Class (2021)
  • Meenakshi Sharma as Meenakshi: Akshay’s former’s girlfriend; Kuhu’s mother (only in flashbacks) (2021)

Production

Casting

After a ten-year leap in June 2016, child actors Mahira Khurrana and Tasheen Shah were replaced by Rubina Dilaik and Roshni Sahota respectively. Vivian Dsena was roped in as the male lead. Besides them Kamya Panjabi, Sudesh Berry, Garima Jain, Bhuvan Chopra, Aarya Rawal, Mahek Thaakur and Lakshya Handa joined the cast.

In November 2016 Reena Kapoor quit the series and her character Nimmi died. It had a crossover with Sasural Simar Ka in April 2017 and Savitri Devi College & Hospital in June 2017. In August 2017 Anand Goradia was chosen to play Maharani. In November 2017 Sara Khan bagged the series as Mohini. Three months later, Jain stepped out of the show and was replaced by Pooja Singh. Later Amrita Prakash was roped in to play Jasleen. Some other new cast entered including Sahil Mehta, Hemant Choudhary, Alka Mogha and Sonal Handa.

Afterwards Krutika Desai Khan played Payal but she later quit the show. The same month Sahota too quit. During Soumya and Harman’s memory loss story, Tiya Gandwani joined the cast as Lavneet Kaushal whereas Mehta and Mogha returned. In very late of December 2018 Iti Kaurav replaced Sahota as Surbhi, but quit after a short 10 episodes in January 2019, before Jaswant Menaria, Shivani Gosain and Rohit Chandel joined the cast. In March 2019, Rohit Roy, Ronit Roy, Mouli Ganguly and Roopal Tyagi were cast and Aashish Kaul appeared in a special appearance.

Next month, Nidhi Bhavsar and Hitanshu Jinsi entered. In May 2019, Nikita Sharma and Prakash Ramchandani were seen in the series. In June 2019, Sahil Uppal entered in a negative role along with Rajesh Puri. In July 2019, Sareeka Dhillon became a part of the show. Next month, Shweta Sinha was cast for a short appearance and Dsena quit because of not wanting to play a father, as a 5 year leap was confirmed.

In September 2019, child actors Sumaiya Khan, Vivaan Sharma and Meet Mukhi were cast in the series. In October 2019, Mamta Luthra, Handa and Ayub Khan returned while Preeti Puri and Avisha Shahu became a part of the show. Initially the 16 year leap was planned for November 2019, but got extended to January 2020. Dilaik quit the show, and several actors joined the cast, with Jigyasa Singh and Simba Nagpal as new leads. Others included Avinash Mukherjee, Meherzan Mazda, Parag Tyagi, Gauri Tonk, Kanwarjit Paintal, Aakash Talwar, Vaani Sharma, Ekroop Bedi and Rachana Mistry. In February 2020, Sonyaa Ayodhya, Prerna Panwar and Naveen Saini were roped in. In late June 2020 actress Gauri Tonk quit the show and was replaced by Jasveer Kaur.

Adaptations

The show was dubbed in Tamil as சக்தி and aired on Polimer TV and was discontinued after airing 274 episodes.