Johnny Lever--life & career

Johnny Lever

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johnny Lever (born John Rao on in amkam village in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, India) is an actor in Bollywood known as a comedian of great regard who has appeared in dozens of films since the 1980s. Born on January 7 1950.

Life & Career

Johnny started off as a comedian in real life while still at school. His beginnings as a comedian in his village were mainly comprised of imitations of his teachers, his father and his grandfather. He could not study much though and dropped out of school when he was in 7th Grade.

He ventured into stand up comedy at the age of 10. He got a job at Hindustan Lever, Mumbai, for 5-6 years and used to amuse his colleagues with stand-up comedy. As he started doing on-stage comedy, he took the Lever part from the company's name .This gave him the pseudonym – Johnny Lever.

His first break in Indian cinema was in the movie Dard Ka Rishta, thanks to the late Sunil Dutt, who saw him perform at a charity show organised by Kalyanji-Anandji. Since then, Johnny has worked in more than 160 films.

He is as good on-stage as he is in his films. He picks up examples from daily life and finds the funny side in all of them. His stage presence is something that all others can only dream of. With his short height and facial expressions, he creates an aura, an atmosphere that is filled with only one thing - laughter.

He is much grieved by the fact that comedy roles are not written as part of the film. This responsibility is often left for the comedian who has to make up a good script for himself. He feels that this requires time and time is what he considers precious. His idols are Johnny Walker, Mehmood, Kishore Kumar and Jagdeep

Even though he mimics so many people, he has a style of his own which makes him unique. As a person, he is very close to his family that comprises of his wife and one child. His younger brother Jimmy Moses, is too, a comedian and mimicry artist.

He now stars on Zee TV on his own show called Johny Aala Re.

National Anthem Controversy

On December 8,1998 , Johny lever was convicted and sentenced to seven days imprisonment for disrespect to the Indian National Anthem and Indian Constitution during a private performance in Dubai.According to the Police, this private performance was on the occasion of birthday party of son of Anis Ibrahim , brother of international smuggler and terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.News-Article

External link==

• Johnny Lever at the Internet Movie Database
• Johnny Lever on Zee TV
• Johny Lever Convicted