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Comedian and actor Rajiv Thakur spoke about his former student, Bharti Singh, becoming a bigger star than he ever could, and said that he has nothing but admiration for her. He also addressed being projected as a punching bag on television for several years, and said that it could’ve had a negative impact on his image. In an interview, Rajiv said that because he was the butt of all jokes, the audience began viewing him as untalented. Chatting with Hindi Rush, Rajiv denied having developed differences with his old friend and former colleague Kapil Sharma, and said that even though they don’t work together, they are still close friends.
Reflecting on his on-screen partnership with the child performer Saloni, he said that even though he was the one training her behind-the-scenes, the audience only saw the final sketch, in which there was no option but to assume the role of the punching bag. Because he couldn’t make fun of a child, Rajiv became the butt of all jokes. Years later, he said, Archana Puran Singh admitted that she should have publicly announced that he was the one who was writing jokes on himself.
He said, “Saloni was eight or nine years old. She hadn’t seen Dev Anand or Dilip Kumar or Mithun Chakraborty, but she was able to mimic them because I taught her. Nobody has seen me mimic these stars, but she was good. She couldn’t even read, so she had to be taught verbally, over six hours every day. Another issue is that you can’t improvise with a child, because you can’t confuse her. If she gets confused, she’ll forget the script.”
He said that other artistes were paired opposite the child as well, but none of them lasted more than four or five episodes because they weren’t willing to put in the work. “Thirdly, and most importantly, if there was ever any roasting, I had to face the brunt of it. What this did was that it made the audience look down upon me, and feel that I wasn’t capable of delivering punches. Of course I was. I could have delivered so many punches, but I didn’t. Even the judges didn’t acknowledge this. It’s not the audience’s fault either,” he said.
He said that being on the receiving end of jokes, for four seasons and over 100 episodes, affected his public image. He started out with Kapil Sharma, but soon found himself falling behind him. “In hindsight, I felt that I shouldn’t have let that happen. Because a child was making fun of me, judges were laughing, and because judges were laughing, other contestants felt that they could also make fun of me,” he said, adding that he looks at it as training. He also spoke about Bharti, who used to be a student of his, and said that he is very proud of her achievements.
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