Exclusive - Jamie Lever on her struggles of being a female comedian: People have told me on my face, 'Yaar, ladkiyan funny nahin hoti, try bhi mat karo'

Female comedian-artist Jamie Lever grew up under the shadow of her legendary father and the king of comedy, Johnny Lever. While being star kids makes it easy for them, it isn't a bed of roses for everyone. Jamie's constant comparison with her father, the responsibility of doing justice to the name 'Lever,' she opened up about all in this exclusive interview with ETimes TV. She also bared her heart out about performing on The Kapil Sharma Show, her mimicry videos, the delayed success, fans recognising her and a lot more in this interview. Read on: (All Photos - Instagram)

When the lockdown happened, my follower count was only 90k or 100k but at that time, I thought, as an artist, what am I doing to entertain people. I am sitting at home, they are sitting at home, and if I have entered the industry with the responsibility of entertaining people, it becomes my duty to make them laugh irrespective of the situation that I am in. Whether I am getting money or not, which platform it is - TV, films or social media, it is my responsibility to entertain people who have chosen me as a comedian for them. I took that responsibility two years ago, and I thought if I have these 100k followers, I will make videos. It was just madness as I was also keeping myself busy because I did not have any work, all the artists were sitting home. I thought let me make the most of it. Things that I wanted to do earlier but did not happen through TV or films, I said let me use this platform and let me put out content that I can entertain people with and that's how the journey started. I feel it is such a blessing that we are going to be a 1 mn family on Instagram and I cannot thank God enough and my fans for loving me.

I feel like the way there is a Kapoor khaandaan, Khan khaandaan, I want to make 'Lever khaandaan.' So, yes, it is my responsibility that I want to take the legacy forward and I also felt that me being a female was an added struggle in my life. I felt that if I have taken the responsibility of taking the legacy forward by being the eldest child in the house then I have to live up to that name. In fact, I did not want to add 'Lever' as my last name. When I stepped into the industry, I had asked everyone to call me 'Jamie J' because Janumala is real surname and in the earlier days, I've even got credit as Jamie J. But, the industry people said that this 'J' is not working, you are a Lever then add it to your name, else how we'll know that you are a Lever. This wasn't even my choice, it just happened. I felt so pressured, that the name 'Johnny Lever' carries so much weightage and I thought, 'Mahn, I am not myself anymore.' I have to fight for my place in the industry and at the same time people were like, 'toh Johnny ji ki beti hain aap, ab dekhenge kya karti hai.' That was another battle altogether but yes people have now accepted me for what I do. People now say that she does what she's best at but at the same time, she's also taking her legacy forward by telling me 'baap ki izzat rakh li isne.'

Back in 2012, when I started there were a few comedy shows coming up where Bharti ji's entry happened and there were some new female comedians, who started coming on TV and getting noticed. That was a huge motivation for me also that 'ladkiyan kar sakti hain, aisi bhi baat nahin hai.' There were a lot of female actresses who used to do comedy in films and television like Tun Tun ji, Himani Shivpuri ji who played various characters but there weren't comedians per se. This was a male-dominated field but I never took that pressure. When I decided to do comedy, I thought that I am an artist and artists don't have any gender. I have to fight my battle as an artist. 'Main bhid gayi, main ghus gayi' but then I realised that people see you differently, they won't understand that you've entered as an artist, they still see you as a woman. So, that was a small struggle where I had to break people's mindset. I remember when I used to go on stage in the early days, it would take the audience a couple of minutes because there is this perception that girls aren't funny. But, I am telling you, girls are very funny, they have so many issues, and we are all over the place with funny stories to tell. People have even told me on my face, 'Yaar, ladkiyan funny nahin hoti, try bhi mat karo' but I was like, I am not going to let that affect me, I am just going to do what I know. I was persistent and did not let these things bother me at all. I feel that if you take these comments into your head and sit in one place, then you can't move forward in life.

I started my journey in 2012 and now we are in 2022. I have actually forgotten how long I have been in the industry, I keep telling people that I have been working since the past eight years. But, it's been 10 years now that I have been working and yes, I have worked very hard and waited very long for this period where my work is acknowledged. The struggle has also been there but everyone has their own struggle and they have their own journey. I had my ups and downs and there were many highs but there were moments where I thought that 'ab mera career khatam ho gaya.' But, I am in the best phase of my career right now and can't thank God enough for what I have today.

He was really tough on me because he knew, it's difficult here and he's seen the struggle himself. He felt that people will criticise and judge me, they will be hard on me because I am Johnny Lever's daughter, who's done 300-400 movies. He knew people would be hard on me, so he would say, 'tu bahar jaane se pehle yahan ro le taaki bahar rona na pade' (Instead of going out and crying, you cry here first). He made sure that I understood and learnt it the tough way. I cried before saying every joke but I am very happy and thankful that I saw this phase too and because of that experience, I became tough. They say comedy comes from tragedy, so even if I had to suffer a few tragedies, it's okay.

We have to just understand what kind of audiences we are catering to. Once you understand your audience, you'll know where to draw the line. I realised that our 'janta' is a little emotional and sensitive. As a comedian, if we go to an extreme, the audiences get hurt. So, we have to be careful. Me and my family have taken this oath of serving this kind of comedy to the audience that can be watched, enjoyed by the entire family together. We don't want to offend anyone. As a family, this is an effort that we take. Yes, there is an appetite for below the belt comedy, there is a group for insult comedy (roast), there's a niche for political comedy, there's a group for satire. There is an audience for every type of comedy and we have comedians who are doing a fantastic job at it. But if the same comedy is given to a larger audience, it won't be accepted. Once you understand your target audience, your game is done. If I am performing on a national platform, then I won't say anything that would affect the larger audience. I know my audience loves Farah Khan (mimics) so I will give them that only.

I didn't watch so many of his movies because my mom didn't have much interest in movies. We rarely watched films at home because we would be busy playing mostly. But when we went for his trials or premieres, at that time we would feel 'wow, daddy is doing so cool.' We've just gone once in a while on his movie set. In fact, we didn't even know that we were 'Johny Lever's' kids. We didn't have that realisation. Maybe kids these days know that they are xyz' kids because mummy kept a very normal atmosphere at home. So, we never felt that we were some celebrity kid or king of comedy's kid. There is an incident that my mom often narrates that we were travelling somewhere and we were at the airport. It was an early morning and a large crowd gathered to see dad and ask for photos. I was very grumpy early morning as a kid and I told my mom, 'Mummy, yeh kya hai? Ek din ye log mere peeche bhi aayenge.' (Mom, what's this? One day, these people will run behind me too) My mother was shocked to hear that from me as a kid. She is witnessing that today and says you did what you said. What is said innocently, can turn true at times.

The celebrities I mimic have called me up to praise me. But there are a few fans of those celebrities who get a little hurt because their bond with that particular celebrity is at another level. They are sensitive and get hurt and that's when they ask why you are mimicking him/her. Yes, I do get a few comments but that's okay because you can't please everybody. If I am doing something that I enjoy, and 90 per cent of my people are enjoying it then I can't do anything for those 10 per cent people. However, I take constructive criticism into consideration and I work on it.

I think I've made people laugh, I want to make them cry and scare them also. If I come in a film as an antagonist and surprise people, it'll be fun. Gradually, I am trying to do that and even my Instagram is filled with surprises. I don't like to be put in a box. I always try to keep changing myself to entertain the audience.

I was quite an attention-seeker type since childhood. I loved to get attention and stay in the limelight. I'd done a few dramas in school but I won several competitions in college as a stand-up comedian, singer, actor and dancer, and made a lot of money too. My parents realised that I am creative but they wanted me to complete my education first. I was a very average but very hard-working student. So, I somehow managed to pass. My dad was hellbent on me doing my Masters and getting secured in life. Back then, I didn't know what I wanted to do in life. I am quite a late bloomer. Mom wanted me to get work experience. So, I also did a job alongside for 2 years but I wasn't enjoying it. It was very difficult for me to do a 9-5 job. I would go out to watch stand-up shows, musical plays and I acted for theatre shows. In the morning, I would work and evening theatre but I was happy that I was getting to do something creative. Being on stage I realised that this is where I belong. That's how I realised this is it and I couldn't lie to myself about doing a 9-5 job and staying happy.

I am a very emotional person. I can go to a room and cry as I have my phases but I've noticed one thing that when I have work, I don't think about what I am going through, it's just work. At that point, I just think of giving 100 per cent to my work. I remember when I was doing a particular episode on Comedy Circus and I had a high fever, very scratchy throat and I was unable to speak, and as you all know my work is all about my voice. I need to mimic, make tunes, that is my job and the one main thing that I do. It was a very tough situation and within a few minutes, I had to go on stage and I kept thinking that I'll be fine before reaching the stage but my condition was severe. At that time, I saw my co-actor Sudesh Lahiri ji, he was also performing there, and his health condition was more severe than mine. I saw him take an injection and go and perform on stage. I took that as an example for me that an artist is so determined to perform that he took an injection and did an amazing performance. I was stunned and said, "main kya cheez hoon." Then I tried to forget that I was unwell, went on stage and performed. For us, you have to just remember why you're doing it, why you love it so much and you should forget everything and just perform. I tried to do that.