Laugh is in the air

With his outstanding contribution to comedy on screen and stage, Jaspal Bhatti has always connoted comedy to be more of a message than just a gag.

The Bhattis never run out of gags — be it their dance debut or the ongoing strike in the television industry

With his outstanding contribution to comedy on screen and stage, Jaspal Bhatti has always connoted comedy to be more of a message than just a gag. And while he gets down to talk seriously about his work, the comedy pasha feels that experimentation is the real flavour of humour. “Comedy lies in the approach towards the subject. Humour may not be satirical always but it must leave behind the right message,” says Bhatti who feels that with overdose of comedy shows these days, television is getting vulgar sometimes. “It is good to see that comedy has become a part of all the daily channels. Infact, these days even news channels re-run comedy shows. But comedy should be healthy and should not only hit on double meaning jokes making it vulgar,” he adds.

An engineering graduate from Punjab, Bhatti was the mascot of comedy on Indian television after his television shows Flop Show and Ulta Pulta, which featured on the national network in the late eighties and early nineties. Although these days he is wooing the other side of his talent with his wife Savita in the dance reality show Nach Baliye, Bhatti says comedy is what he will keep doing forever. “Dance is a challenging and exciting thing for a person like me. When the channel guys had approached me, I told my wife they had knocked the wrong address, but after giving a second thought on my daughter’s insistence, I finally agreed to try my hands on it.”

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The Bhatti couple, who is the senior most at the Nach Baliye competition this season, truly seems to be the most entertaining one. “Having a comedy background, we always try to put the humour element into our performance but in future we will also try serious dance moves,” says his better half, Savita Bhatti adding, “Jaspal was someone who always kept away from dancing. I always felt bad about it during family functions. However, this show has developed a common interest between the two of us.”

Although the ongoing strike between the cine employees and the producers is said to bring losses to everyone, in his signature style, Bhatti says, “It is the most positive thing for the men as their wives would have put off the television and given more time to their husbands.”

However, on a serious note, he adds that the industry is not habitual to such long breaks and the loss involves everyone ultimately. “The link and sync of work is getting disturbed; all of us are waiting to get back to work,” says Bhatti who has also set up a training school and studio called Joke Factory near Chandigarh. “Well, we will pack and parcel jokers from here,” he quips. “It is a part of our Media and Design Art School (MAD) where training will be imparted on different aspects of media and animation, keeping in mind the comedy angle,” he signs off.