Balika Vadhu

The show is set up in rural Rajasthan emphasizing the practice of child marriage showing Anandi , an 8 year old girl married to Jagdish, an 8 year old boy. He is the only grandson of Kalyani Devi also called Dadisa and Maasa. Kalyani is a widow with high regard for rituals and superstitions. She has two sons, Bhairon and Basante. Bhairon and his wife, Sumitra have two kids, Jagdish and his sister Sugna. Basant's wife, Jamuna, conceives. However, she becomes ill and dies. Basant is now a widower. Kalyani gets him marries to Gehna although she is much younger than he is.

Initially, Gehna rebels against Kalyani and is scared of Basante. After a lot of resistance, Kalyani Devi threatens to throw Gehna out of the house. It is then revealed that Gehna is pregnant with Basant’s child. All emotions change, and Gehna agrees to deliver the child. Later Gehna and Basante are shown to develop feelings for each other and Basant also defends his wife in front of his mother when required.

On the day of Sugna's farewell ceremony, Pratap, husband dies at the hands of some bandits leaving her widowed. Then Badi Jiji arrives, who is sought to bring happiness and joy into the household once again. She leaves after a tiff with her sister, Kalyani Devi.

Shyam is introduced as the new character. He is a city educated young boy who comes to the village. He does not believe in the age old traditions followed in the village. He plays a prank on Sugna and she reprimands him for it and also tells him that she is a widow. Shyam saves Jagdish’s life and they become friends. Then it is revealed that Shyam loves Sugna and asks her family for her hand in marriage, knowing full well her situation.

Later, Shyam marries Suguna. Initially, Shyam’s parents had allowed this marriage but when they realize Suguna is pregnant, they oppose it and ask Shyam not to marry Sugna. Shyam opposes this and marries Sugna anyway. Shyam’s parents disown him and he starts living in Sugna’s parents’ house. Sugna and Shyam develop feelings for each other.

A new character Mahavir Singh is introduced. He is revealed to be Kalyani Devi’s brother-in-law, and had misbehaved with her after her husband’s death. They had parted ways immediately after that with a lot of friction. Mahavir Singh still harbours enmity against Kalyani Devi and seeks revenge. He is ready to resort to any means and takes to disrupting the lives of villagers in Kalyani’s village, trying to gain authority over the entire village.

On the other hand, Sundar befriends Jagdish. He is a spoilt child who whose company has a negative influence on Jagdish.

Anandi and Jagdish ’s parents lose their land to Mahavir Singh and approach Kalyani Devi for help. She refuses, but Anandi and Jagdish go to Mahavir Singh with the request. Kalyani Devi gets furious once she finds out and throws Anandi out of the house. Anandi and her family face hard times because of her mother’s sickness and father’s broken leg. Having no money, it makes life more difficult for them, and they also lose their land and home. The family starts working as servants in Mahavir Singh’s house because he helps them with money for the father’s leg operation.

Bhairon saves Anandi’s family from their plight, and gets her back home on Diwali. Kalyani Devi forgives Anandi and they celebrate Divali happily. Gehna gives birth to a boy after much difficulty and names him Nandikshore aka Nandini All are extremely happy with this, especially Dadisa. They happily celebrate the arrival of the baby. But Gehna remembers Dadisa’s condition,that she had to leave by giving the heir in her hands.So she becomes sad and keeps the condition by leaving her child in hands of Dadisa. After sometime the ill health of the child makes Gehna to return home.

Just then Mahavir Singh traps Anandi’s father in a plan by lodging a false complaint against him. Bhairon and Vasant make all attempt to save him but in vain as it was a major case. However it is also revealed that Vasant is Mahavir Singh’s son. Kalyani only has adopted him since when Mahavir Singh’s wife gives birth to Vasant she tells Kalyani to take care of his son and treat him like her own child. She urges Kalyani to keep the promise and then dies. So,Kalyani adopts him all knowing that he is her own son. When Mahavir comes to know this, he makes attempt to kidnap Vasant’s son and keep him. But when he is caught, something happens which changes his mind and he becomes good by releasing Anandi’s father from the prison. Then Sugna also gives birth to a boy and names him Varun.

Meanwhile, when both Jagdish and Anandi’s examination results are out, it is declared that Anandi and Jagdish has come first. They all happily celebrate it but is revealed that Jagdish has only scored 40% and he has lied by making a false report card with the help of one of his friends, Haria. This infuriates Bhairon and he punishes him for it. But in fear of insult from friends Jagdish runs away with his friend, Haria to Mumbai. While going, he leaves a mobile for Anandi. With that, all come to know where he is and Bhairon, Anandi and Shyam go in search of him. A goon kidnaps Jagdish. Anandi finds him and the two embrace each other. One of the goons attempt to shoot Jagya but Anandi takes the bullet and almost dies. Kalyani realises her love for Anandi and thanks all the people of her village who helped her family in the difficult period of time. But apart from being well, Anandi becomes mentally weak. It is shown that a new character, Teepri comes and she is childhood friends of Bhairon and Vasant. But Teepri has other plans in her mind. She wants to take Sumitra’s place in the house as Anandi’s mother-in-law. Anandi becomes suspicious and Teepri convinces Kalyani to remarry Jagya. Jagya is married to Gauri Singh but the panchayat declares it illegal and the marriage is called off. Since Anandi and Jagya are going through hormonal changes, both families decide to keep them away from each other. However, Jagdish misses her and visits her.

Jagya and Anandi reunite and consummate their marriage. Jagdish and Anandi are in love. Later on, Anandi suffers an injury. When Jagya is unable to find a doctor in Rajasthan, he is inspired to become one. While studying in Mumbai, Jagdish meets Gauri in Mumbai who is also training to become a doctor. She falls in love with Jagya and brainwashes him. Jagya falls in love with her and marries her leaving Anandi broken-hearted. Anandi becomes the teacher and Saparnch Bitiya of Jaistar. She educates girls and goes against child marriage.

Later on, Gauri gets pregnant with Jagya's child. After Jagya is unable to take Master's Exams, Gauri gets into a car accident causing her to miscarry. She becomes vengeful towards Jagya's family. She forces Jagya to threaten the family for his inheritance but when Anandi finds out, she stops it. Jagya finds out that Gauri has been using him as a ladder and learns how she separated him from his family. He divorces her and vows to reunite with Anandi, who has fallen in love with the town collector, Shiv. He does all he can to stop the wedding but after apologizes. They remain good friends. Anandi and Shiv move to Udaipur while Jagya marries Ganga. Basant dies in a car accident leaving Gehna widowed. On their 1st wedding anniversary, Shiv and Anandi adopt a handicapped boy names Amol. Some time later, Shiv dies in a terrorist attack after which, Anandi gives birth to twins: Nandini and Shivam.

During one of her campaigns against child marriage, Akhiraj, a goon, kidnaps Nandini and renames her to Nimboli for marriage to his son Kundan.

Nimboli is being abused by her in-laws. Kundan, who is going through hormonal changes, tries to get close to Nimboli. She meets Jagya and becomes very fond of him. Eventually, Jagya realizes that she is Nandini and she reunites with Anandi and Shivam. However, Akhiraj escapes custody and wants revenge on Anandi, Jagya, Nimbli and Shivam. He attempts to shoot Anandi but Kalyani takes the bullet. During her funeral, Akhiraj pursues Anandi and the twins. Nimboli and Shivam survive but he manges to kill Anandi who falls into the river along with the twins. Jagya fatally shoots him and he dies. Believing that they are dead, Jagya cries.

Shivam tries to defend Nandini from a man who tries to rape her but accidentally kills him. The twins are separated.

The second season is set 15 years after the end of season 1. Nandini is a physician, driven by a promise to her dying mother to provide medical treatment throughout Rajasthan. Amit, another doctor, falls in love with her and wishes to marry her. However, Nandini loves Krish, another medical student. However, she still agrees to marry Amit. On the day of the wedding, Dr. Vandana, Amit's ex-wife, puts the wedding on hold. She claims that she is Amit's first wife and that she hasn't signed the divorce papers. Amit goes ahead with the wedding expressing to Vandana that he loves Nandini. During the wedding, Amit realizes that Nandini loves Krish more than him and decides to unite the lovers. Nandini gets married to Krish. When she leaves for her in-laws, she realizes that Krish's step-father is actually Kundan who wants revenge on her. She also finds that the groom she approved or her adoptive sister Sudha is actually Shivam, who has become a gangster. She reunites with him. Kundan kidnaps her to force her to remarry him, but is killed by the police.

In the epilogue, she summarizes her family history from Anandi's childhood to her present in a book titled Balika Vadhu.

• Pratyusha Banerjee / Toral Rasputra as Anandi Singh Shekhar: Khajaan and Bhagwati's daughter; Jagya's ex-wife; Shiv" wife; Amol's adoptive mother; Nandini and Shivam mother (2010–13; 2013-16) (Dead)
  • Avika Gor as Child Anandi Singh (2008–10)
• Sidharth Shukla as Shivraj "Shiv" Shekhar: Anoop and Meenakshi's son; Sanchi's and Mahi's brother; Anandi's second husband; Amol's adoptive father; Nandini and Shivam's father (2012–15) (Dead)
• Shashank Vyas / Shakti Anand as Dr. Jagdish "Jagya" Singh: Bhairon and Sumitra's son; Sugna's brother; Anandi and Gauri's ex-husband; Ganga's husband; Mannu's step-father; Abhimanyu's father (2010–2015, 2015–16)
  • Avinash Mukherjee as Child Jagya Singh (2008–10)
• Mahhi Vij as Dr. Nandini Shekhar Malhotra: Anandi and Shiv's daughter; Naren and Jamuna's adopted daughter; Shivam's sister; Kundan's ex-wife; Krish's wife (2016)
  • Gracy Goswami as Child Nandini "Nimboli" Shekhar (2015–16)
• Yukti Kapoor as Sudha: Naren and Jamuna's daughter; Nandini's adoptive sister turned sister in law; Shivam's wife (2016)
• Anjum Farooki/Deblina Chatterjee as Dr. Gauri Singh: Jagya's ex wife (2010–12, 2014)
  • Mahima Makwana as Child Gauri (2010)
• Ruslaan Mumtaz as Dr. Krish Malhotra: Kundan's step-son; Nandini's husband (2016)
• Sriti Jha/Sargun Mehta/Aasiya Kazi as Dr. Ganga Singh: Ratan's former wife; Jagya's wife; Mannu and Abhimanyu's mother (2013) (2013-14) (2014-16)
  • Roshni Walia as Child Ganga (2013)
• Surekha Sikri as Kalyani Devi Singh: Dharamveer's wife; Bhairon and Basant's mother; Jagya and Sugna's grandmother (2008–16) (Dead)
  • Heeba Shah as Young Kalyani Devi (2009)

• Anup Soni as Bhairon Singh: Dharamveer and Kalyani's son; Basant's brother; Sumitra's husband; Jagya and Sugna's father (2008–14)
• Smita Bansal as Sumitra Bhairon Singh: Bhairon's wife; Jagya and Sugna's mother (2008–14)
• Chetanya Adib as Khajaan Singh: Bhagwati's husband; Anandi's father (2008–15)
• Bhairavi Raichura as Bhagwati Singh: Khajaan's wife; Anandi's mother (2008–12) (Dead)
• Dishank Arora as Shivam Shekhar: Anandi and Shivraj's son; Nandini's brother; Sudha's husband (2016)
  • Viren Vazirani as Child Shivam Shekar (2015–16)
• Vineet Kumar Chaudhary as Kundan Singh: Akhiraj and Harki's son (2016)
  • Sparsh Srivastav/Karan Pahwa as young Kundan (2015–16)
• Roop Durgapal as Sanchi Shekhar Kabra: Alok and Iravati's daughter, Vivek's wife (2012–15)
• Jaineeraj Rajpurohit as Alok Shekhar: Premkishore's son, Iravati's husband, Sanchi's father (2012–15)
• Sonal Jha as Iravati Shekhar: Alok's wife, Sanchi's mother (2012–15)
• Avinash Wadhawan/Akshay Anand as Anoop Shekhar: Premkishore's son, Meenakshi's husband (2013–2014, 2014–2015)
• Anita Kulkarni as Meenakshi Anoop Shekhar: Anoop's wife, Shivraj and Mahi's mother (2012–15)
• Shubham Jha as Amol Shivraj Shekhar: Shivraj and Anandi's adopted son (2014–2015)
• Satyajit Sharma as Basant Singh: Jamuna's husband, Gehna's ex-husband, Jagdish and Sugna's Uncle, Nandu and Bhaivri father (2008–2014) (Dead)
• Geeta Tyagi as Jamuna Basant Singh: Basant's wife, Jagdish and Sugna's aunt (2008)
• Neha Marda/Sheetal Khandal as Gehna Basant Singh/Gehna Niranjan Singh: Basant's ex-wife, Nandu and Bhaivri mother (2008–2012, 2012–2015)
• Sanjay Basak as Nandkishore "Nandu" Singh: Basant and Gehna's son (2012–2015)
• Rahul Lohani as Niranjan Singh: Gehna's second husband (2009–2010, 2014–2015)
• Sunil Singh as Akhiraj Singh: Harki's husband (2015–2016) (Dead)
• Rudrakshi Gupta as Harki Akhiraj Singh: Akhiraj's wife (2015–16)
• Farah Hussain as Kamli Singh: Akhiraj and Harki's daughter, Pushkar's wife (2015–16)
• Tisha Kapoor as Urmila Singh: Kundan's ex-wife (2015–16) (Dead)
• Sudhir Pandey as Premkishore Shekhar: Alok and Anoop's father (2012–2015)
• Sushmita Mukherjee as Subhadra, Hardik grandmother (2014–15)
• Nidhi Jha/Sonam Lamba as Gulli: Hardik's wife, Champa's daughter (2011–2013, 2014)
• Vimarsh Roshan as Advocate Vivek Kabra: Sanchi's husband (2013–2015)
• Sonal Handa as Saurabh Kabra (2013–2014)
• Shalini Arora as Suman Kabra (2014–2015)
• Abhishek Tiwari as Mahi Shekhar (2012–2014)
• Reena Aggarwal as Ashima (2012–2013)
• Chandresh Singh as Ratan Singh (2013–2015) (Dead)
• Vibha Anand/Janvi Chheda as Sugna Singh: Bhairon and Sumitra daughter, Jagdish's sister, Pratap ex-wife, Shyam's wife,Varun and Shagun mother (2008–2010, 2011–2013)
• Vikrant Massey/Sachin Shroff as Shyam Singh: Sugna's husband (2009–2010, 2011–2013)
• Rudra Soni as Varun Singh: Pratap and Sugna's son (2011–2013)
  • Shivansh Kotia as young Varun (2010)
• Amar Sharma as Madan Singh: Shyam's father (2008–2014)
• Abhijeet Lahiri as Ramcharan Singh (2009–2010)
• Asmita Sharma as Radha Singh: Shyam's wife (2008–2010)
• Neha Gosain as Asha Singh (2011–2013)
• Ankit Gupta as Abhishek Singh (2012–2013)
• Rajeshwari Sachdev as Mangaladevi Singh née Disa (2015–2016) (Dead)
• Rajendra Gupta as Mahaveer Singh (2009–2012)
• Mrudula Sathe as Rani (2008)[4]
• Parichay Sharma as Pushkar Singh: Kamli's husband (2015–2016)
• Hiten Tejwani as Dr. Anant: Nidhi's father (2015–2016)
• Vidhi Pandya as Nidhi: Anant's daughter (2015–16)
• Farida Jalal as Vasundhara Devi (2009, 2012)
• Faiza Faiz/Mamta Chaturya as Phooli Singh: Anandi's childhood friend (2008–2010) (2010–2012)
• Arpit Joshi as Lal Singh (2010–2012)
• Nivedita Bhattacharya as Shivani Rajadhyaksha (2011, 2014)
• Sadiya Siddiqui as Sandhya (2008–2013)
• Jehangir Vakil as Pratap Singh: Sugna's ex husband (2008–2009) (Dead)
• Geetanjali Mishra as Sona/Kusum (2014–2015)
• Harsh Mehta as Mahendra "Mannu" Singh: Ganga and Ratan's son (2015–2016)
  • Dhairya Ashani as young Mannu

Balika Vadhu's premiere had a very low rating of 0.7 target rating point (TRP) initially.[5] Five weeks after launch, it entered the top 5 list under "Hindi General Entertainment Channels (GEC)"[6] and the became the most-watched program of Colors TV.[5] This helped the newly launched channel to gain first position in the TRP chart, breaking the nine-year run of Star Plus.[7][8] Balika Vadhu often held top position on the ratings charts through its first 1,400 episodes.[9]

In week 39 of 2008, it occupied top position with 6.76 TVR.[10]

In week 28 February 2009, it garnered its highest weekly rating of 10 TVR.[11] In 11 week of 2009, it occupied third position with 5.9 TVR.[12] In week ending 13 June 2009, it was at fourth position with 5.3 TVR.[13]

In week 11 of 2010, it occupied top position and garnered 7.7 TVR.[14] In week 30 of 2010, it occupied with the top position with 6.9 TVR.[15]

In week ending 28 May 2011, it occupied the top position with 4.91 TVR.[16] In week 24 of 2011, it was at second position with 4.81 TVR.[17] In first two weeks of August 2011, it garnered 6.1 and 5.2 TVRs maintaining its top position.[18]

In the first week of 2012, it occupied the second position with 4.76 TVR.[19] In week 50 of 2012, it was at top position with 5.8 TVR.[20]

In the last week of July 2013, it was at second position with 3.9 TVR.[21]

Balika Vadhu opened to mixed reviews from critics. While some appreciated the series for portraying the issues of child marriage, which had not been shown before on Indian television, others criticized it for glorifying child marriage and exploiting it.[5][22][23]

In 2009, the series was criticized in the Indian Parliament, prompting the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to suspend its telecast and condemn the series for portraying child marriage in contravention of Indian law.[24][25][26]