Up Close & Personal with Bharti Singh
She is a walking volcano of laughter… Just a glimpse of hers on Screen is enough to send you in splits… So isn’t that an after-effect of a life that began in plenty – perish the thought… Bharti Singh’s beginnings were bruised and battered… A couple of years back, she shared some of the inner-most recesses of her life with us in a chatty encounter…
On a deprived Childhood…
‘We were too poor… My father died when I was just 2 years old and my mom brought up the three of us children single-handedly… The family couldn’t afford education for all 3 of us, so everybody made sacrifices to send me to School’…!
On losing a parent early…
‘Yes, I lost Dad so early, but I don’t ever talk about him… what’s the use?… God called him away – so be it! Maybe, had he been alive, I wouldn’t have been where I’m, today – you know, how is it in lower middle class, patriarch-driven families – the girls are never allowed to step out… So whatever God did – did it for my good’…!
On Bharti, the little one…
Oh, I was fat, naughty like hell and garrulous to the uttermost, gibbering-jabbering nineteen to a dozen all the time… Mom would often wail – ‘For God’s sake learn to be quiet… Ladki ki zaat hai – doosre ghar jaakar hamari naak katwaayegi!’…Poor thing, my Mom’…!
On mischiefs…
Heaps & loads of ’em, like, stuffing my nose with nut-bolts, sticking my hand so badly in a door that it had to be cut open to release my fingers, messing up with my mom’s sewing machine and 24×7, being the Pangebaaz No. 1… And when Mom would howl at me, I’ll howl back – ‘First, tell me what you ate before giving birth to me?’… ha, ha, ha’…!
On being a Comic…
‘You see, Kapil Sharma, Sudesh Lehri, Rajiv Thakur etc. were my seniors in college and they’re the ones who groomed me… And when they became famous with ‘Laughter Challenge’, they called me to contest the next session… I was frozen – ‘No, Sir’ I wailed, ‘even in weddings, I keep turning my back on the cameras to hide my plate, how can I ever face those shooting cameras in the Show?… But they persisted and finally, I boarded the first ever flight of my life – to Bombay’…!
On ‘Laughter Challenge’ debut…
‘I saw Shotgun there – I mean, THE Shatrughan Sinha… sitting in person before me – I was toh paralysed… I ended up as ‘Runners-up’ in the Contest and that was a miracle for me, as I never thought I could survive more than one episode… They gave me a 40-inch LCD TV and the streets of Amritsar burst with excitement… Nobody had seen such a big Screen before’…!
On Comedy…
‘One doesn’t create comedy – it’s already there all around us in our mommas, granmas, granpas, neighbours, chums – One just has to pick it up properly’…
On being stamped as a ‘Blue Whale’…
‘Not only that – ‘Laughing Buddha’, ‘Adnan’s twin’, ‘Truck’ and many, many more – but what’s the big deal… I am what I am…You know, 9 children were born with me in the hospital and I was the heaviest of ’em all… My mom got a prize for having borne me’…!
On turning slim…
‘NEVER! Arre, bahut roungi if that happens… When Gyms offer me 70-80% discount, I shoo them all away and when those size-zero nymphets dare taunt me for my bulge, I tell them – ‘Look, I can earn a lakh of rupees at the snap of my finger thanks to my bulge – can you do that?’… Really, today, I, who didn’t know what a brand is, have bought an ‘Audi Q3’ and that too from my own money – all thanks again to my bulge… Do you think, I’ll ever be foolish enough to lose it?’…!
On being a ‘JDJ’ Contestant…
‘Oh, my‘Jhalak Dikhla Ja’ dancing avatar was thanks to only and only one man – Savio (Barnes – Choreographer)! It was a miracle that an 85 kg. girl did all those Splits, Cartwheels, Rolls – the works and that too with such finesse! Just Savio could have wrought this miracle! He was my pal, bro and parent, all in one’…!
On life as a Celeb…
‘It is hard – particularly, for an Aaloo ke Paraathe, Chaat-Pakode, Gol-gappe girl like me, who now cannot stop at stalls and polish those goodies off, because I get mobbed and have to run for my life… Ooof – being a Celeb is really tough, but today, even if I’m walking in a Chappal – I remain a Celeb’…!
On Icons…
‘Paresh Rawal… Johnny Lever… and yes – my Kapil Bhaiya… But none of those Chaplin etc. – that’s too old an era and I don’t understand them, anyway’…!
On being a Funster 24×7…
‘It can be a torment – once my Mom was in ICU and I was on the Sets of ‘Comedy Circus’ being funny… But just as ‘he’ said in ‘Mera Naam Joker’ – ‘Show Must Go On’… That’s my mantra’…!
On a prayer for God…
‘Only one – Bhagwaan, Mujhe Kabhi Dubli Mat Kar Dena… Main Barbaad Ho Jaaungi’…!
On summing herself up…
‘Chhoti in my heart, Moti in my frame and Naughty in my act – that’s me, Bharti!