Johnny Lever is one of the most loved comedians in Bollywood. Be it his perfect comic timing or appropriate expressions, Johnny has undoubtedly etched a special place for himself in millions of hearts. Coming to his personal life, he is married to Sujatha Lever, and together, the duo is blessed with two kids, a son, Jesse and a daughter, Jamie. Walking in her father's footsteps, Jamie too, pursued her dream of becoming a comedian. In 2012, she performed for the first time at The Comedy Show in Mumbai. Following this, she was seen in many shows like Comedy Circus Ke Mahabali and also in movies, including Kis Kis Ko Pyar Karoon, Housefull 4, and Bhoot Police.
Now, we stumbled upon a candid conversation of Jamie Lever with Deepak Pareek, wherein she revealed the background story of how her father, Johnny Lever's name was changed from the original one. In the beginning of the video, Jamie can be heard saying, "Unhone Lever kyun dala? There's a backstory." Soon, the interviewer asked her, "But what's the Lever story?" To this, she explained that all this began when Johnny was a worker at the prestigious company, Hindustan Lever. Further, revealing how her daddy always kept people entertained with his comedy, Jamie said:
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"For my dad because he worked a Hindustan Lever. And he used to every year I think he had an annual program where he used to perform and mimic everyone. And he used to pull everyone. So people used to love watching him. And we was just a normal leader at the company. He was a normal labourer at the company. He used to mimic everyone. All the heads of the company: his managers, his seniors and all others, he used to mimic everyone."
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In the same conversation, the doting daughter mentioned that Johnny constantly performed at the annual functions of his then-company, Hindustan Lever, and kept mimicking every employee over there. Undoubtedly, people loved Johnny's performance. Soon, getting pleased with his sense of comedy, one of his seniors named him 'Johnny Lever', changing his name entirely from the original name of 'John Rao Janumala'. Jamie added:
"They were so impressed by him. They said, 'I think the actual thing was that one of his seniors came on stage and he awarded him or honoured him, and he said, 'You did a Lever performance today. So from today, your name is Johnny Lever. And that became such a catchy name for him that he realized that this is good. Let's just keep this. And instead of having 'John Rao Janumala'. Can you imagine? You can't even put my father's face with that name."
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Jamie is extremely close to her daddy, Johnny, and the doting daughter keeps opening up about certain things from their strong bond. Once, in a candid conversation with the ETimes, Jamie talked about the initial years of her journey as a comedienne. The actress shared that her father always supported her decision and trained her hard for the real world. She explained that her father knew she would be judged for her performances and would be compared with him. Thus, her father wanted her to be well-prepared before entering the entertainment business.
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Going further in the interview, Jamie mentioned that she is just a novice compared to her father, Johnny, who worked in more than 300-400 movies in his career in Bollywood. She also admitted that there were times when she cried while preparing to become a comedian. However, then her father, Johnny, gave her intense mental training. He told her that instead of going out and crying, first cry at home, and this became a significant learning experience in her life. Thus, despite facing a lot of hardships, she did not think of quitting for a second. Explaining the same, she stated:
"He (Johnny Lever) would say, 'tu bahar jaane se pehle yahan ro le taaki bahar rona na pade'. 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 I had to suffer a few tragedies but it's okay. There is a Kapoor khaandaan, Khan khaandaan, I want to make 'Lever khaandaan'."
Well, we are amazed to learn how Johnny Lever's name was changed from the original. What about you? Let us know!
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