Comedians in India

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Female comics: Stand up, be counted
11 Jan 2009,
Meenakshi Sinha,
Times of India

They crack naughty jokes, mimic famous heroines of yesteryear and perform hilarious skits. If television channels are newly resounding to laughter, it’s because many of the jokes are being cracked by a bunch of bindaas women comedians. It wasn’t always this way. Till now, women — funny women — have been notoriously absent from Indian public life. Except for small-time performers such as Tuntun and Manorama, tickling the Indian funny bone has largely been considered a male preserve. That bastion is now breached.

The newest clutch of female comedians include television actresses such as Urvashi Dholakia, Kamya Punjabi, Juhi Parmar and Karishma Tanna. They surprised audiences with their hitherto well-concealed humour. Then there’s Bharti Singh from Amritsar, known till now as a national-level pistol shooter. And there’s Jalandhar’s Sugandha Mishra, who started out as a professional radio jockey. She’s also a trained classical singer but it’s her humour that has got everyone talking. And laughing.

Bharti weighs 80 kilos. Just 5 ft 1 inch, she has turned her girth into the subject of self-deprecatory jokes. “I crack jokes about myself,” she says nonchalantly. She enjoyed legendary popularity at Punjab University youth festivals but her big break came when she was selected for a reality show, Laughter Challenge season 4 in 2007. “Since then many girls from my town have mustered the courage to participate in such shows,” she says.

Currently contract-bound to Star TV for two years, most of Bharti’s shows are organised by the channel. Her fees start from Rs 50,000. She is in work throughout the year but demand peaks at festival-time — the Navratras, Diwali, Holi and the New Year. In the busy period, she rakes in anywhere between Rs 60,000 to Rs 75,000 per show. “I perform in places such as Amritsar, Bhopal, Gwalior, Delhi and Mumbai,” she says.

Aarti Kandpal was one of the first female comedians to hit the small screen. Originally from Uttaranchal, the 28-year-old now lives in Mumbai. A political science graduate, Kandpal admits she never thought she might become a professional stand-up till she participated in Laughter Challenge 3. “My mimicry of heroines like Meena Kumari, Hema Malini, Sharmila Tagore and Raakhi was an instant hit,” she says.

There was no looking back and she literally laughed her way to the bank and to the popularity charts. Male comedians, such as Raju Srivastava and Rajeev Nigam, acknowledge she’s funny. Kandpal is now reportedly flooded with film offers and has already ventured into TV serials such as Jai Ganesha and Parivarr.

Those in the business believe that laughter shows become popular in stressful times. In a sense, the rise of laughter on television is at least partly a reaction to the saas-bahu serials. Funny men — Sunil Pal, Raju Srivastava, Navin Prabhakar — who emerged from nowhere in the Great Indian Laughter Challenge paved the way for the women.

Actress Archana Puran Singh, a judge on several comedy shows, finds the trend heartening. Earlier women comedians were too few and too far between, she says. This was for three reasons, she says — lack of opportunity, exposure and confidence. The last, she says, results from women actors being uncomfortable with the idea of being the subject of ridicule. But she points out that none of the female comics who come from a television serial background such as is strictly stand-up because they are given a skit to perform.

“Most of them would fail if they were to do a stand-up act like the Pakistani comedian Shakeel.” But she says the criticism does not detract from a basic truth — Indian women have surprised themselves — and others — by daring to be funny in public.

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Naveen Prabhakar Aims to Remain India’s Top Comedian
Denzil Fernandes
pic by Ravi Almeida
Daijiworld Media Network
Nov 1, 2010

If you say that nothing succeeds like success, go no further than India’s top slot comedian Naveen Prabhakar. Young and chirpy as he should be in his trade of making people laugh whenever he takes the mike, Naveen seemed friendly and cordial even if you were meeting him for the first time. And by making people laugh he has shown that there is no parameter to success.

Naveen was in Dubai to perform at the ‘Bindaas Bollywood’ show held, recently. A funny character indeed, Naveen was all out to reveal his past and future with no holds barred. Having tasted spectacular success especially with his ‘Pehchan Kaun’, his most famous comedy series yet, Naveen is immensely blessed with enough talent to shine as an actor, singer and comedian in which he specializes. This apart, he has anchored shows in every nook and corner of the world including a mammoth 45,000 crowd in Atlanta (US) where the audience did not let him go off stage. This was at the ‘hearthrob’ show in 2003 where 11 other top bollywood stars were performing live on stage. Star performer Hrithik Roshan was so impressed with Naveen that he came and hugged him with love. His popularity and the nine passports accumulated on the course of his various tours, for some countries even multiple visas with no questions asked.

Naveen started comedy as a hobby in school and continued the profession of imitating professors and others which gave him quick money whenever he performed around his vicinity. So much so at a Satyanarayana puja in Mumbai as a 12th standard student his classmates forced him to perform which gave him 101 rupees and a rude shock to his mother who asked where the money came from!

Naveen believes that comedy can ease the day to day stress of people. He is happy to have contributed to the people with his rare brand of comedy. He is also a good singer with about 7 albums released that includes Marathi songs, Her has so far acted in a total of 6 films. Currently, Naveen is busy with more films including ‘Yaraana aur thodisi bewakoofi’ under a top banner.

Naveen has been on the road for 12 years with a mixture of roles as an anchor, comedian and actor. He hit the bull’s eye in 2005 with his ‘Pehchan Kaun’ series which had his name zoom to the top as one of the finest comedians in India. He is now pleased that more and more women performers are coming into the scene as comedians which means that the vulgarity factor will now diminish. Most television channels have comedy as one of their prime time offerings.

Naveen considers Johnny Lever as the master in the professional comedy circus. He was eloquent while praising Lever who is said to be at ease with his mastery over so many Indian languages. There will never be another like Johnny Lever says Naveen acknowledging his contribution to comedy in India. He also says that Navjot Singh Sidhu is a fine personality with so much knowledge.

Being a trained actor, the boyish looking comedian who can imitate most of the voices of famous film stars is gunning to get a filmfare award. When I asked him if he believed in receiving such awards which some top actors do not bother, Naveen said that he wanted to show everyone his talent as a comedian with acting ability as well.

Having reaped success in his career and still looking like a college student even today, Naveen is indeed blessed with a rare talent that can send the audience laughing non-stop. His comical narration of a college girl talking to her boy friend from a Mumbai telephone booth made me burst out with laughter. With so many waiting in the queue to make a phone call including Naveen at the booth in a Mumbai suburb, the girl was unaffected and continued talking. Seeing Naveen behind making faces to come off the line and give the phone she yelled to tell her boy friend ‘hi darling, here is this joker pestering me to end the call. Wait a minute, I will call you back. O.k.?’

Most of Naveen’s comedy acts are based on real life occurrences and are presented in a way that you cannot help applauding India’s comedy star in awe. That is the brilliance of Naveen Prabhakar.