20 May,2026 04:59 PM IST | Mumbai | Shruti Sampat
Palki Malhotra (Pic via Instagram)
Director Palki Malhotra is celebrating a major milestone as Campus Beats successfully reaches its sixth season. In an exclusive conversation with Mid-day, Palki reflected on the long and challenging journey behind bringing back feel-good youth content at a time when darker and grittier narratives dominated the entertainment space.
Opening up about the emotional moment of reaching season six, Palki admitted that the achievement only truly sank in after fans began reacting online. "Who does not want to make history? Every individual dreams of making history," she said. While the team had initially celebrated reaching season five, she realised that several Indian TV and OTT shows had also crossed that milestone. "So I thought we have to cross this," she added.
According to Palki, the overwhelming feeling finally hit her after the new season premiered and audiences started flooding social media with edits and reactions. "Till last night we were also delivering the masters. We were like, what's happening? Will this show go or not? And then that's when it hit me when people were eagerly waiting, fans started making edits. I was like okay, let me just take one minute and breathe that we have achieved this milestone," she shared.
The director credited both the audience and the team's unwavering belief for helping the show grow into a successful franchise. "It's really because of them and their faith in this show that has taken us here. We delivered on the passion because there is a lot of faith, so it's overwhelming," she said.
Palki also candidly discussed how difficult it was to launch Campus Beats in the first place despite already having experience working on big television projects. "I genuinely thought that after doing huge shows, it will be so easy for me to pitch and get another show. But I didn't get another huge show or a breezy show for another decade," she revealed.
She explained that the entertainment industry was more interested in edgy and gritty content at the time, making it difficult to sell a youth-centric dance-romance drama. In fact, Palki admitted she intentionally pitched Campus Beats as a thriller to make it more marketable. "I wrote a thriller and I was like listen, there is a thriller in it, so I pitched it like an undercover thriller," she explained, referring to the first season's mystery involving the protagonist's father.
However, despite the thriller angle, she consciously wanted the storytelling to remain warm and emotional. "We will do a lot of romance because I personally believe that people need breezy shows and feel-good friendships," she said.
Palki also stressed that youth stories should explore emotional complexities rather than just darkness. "Youth is all about that. You need to sometimes go wrong to understand what right is," she concluded, adding that creating Campus Beats with that perspective was a deliberate and deeply personal choice for her.
