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Johnny Lever has been nominated for the Filmfare Award 13 times, of which he won the award twice for ‘Deewana Mastana’ (1997) and ‘Dulhe Raja’ (1998).
Today is the birthday of Johnny Lever, who was the king of laughter, a magician of comedy and a smile on his face. Johnny is counted among the most famous comedians of Hindi cinema. He has worked in more than 350 Hindi films so far.
Today Johnny Lever On the special occasion of K Birthday, let’s touch his life closely-
Johnny was born in a Telugu Christian family. His father was an operator in Hindustan Unilever. The family has three sisters and two brothers.
Johnny Lever’s younger brother Jimmy Moses is an actor and stand-up comedian. He has acted in films like ‘Chennai Express’.
Johnny’s childhood spent in the narrow streets of Matunga and Dharavi in Mumbai. He could not study after 6-7th grade due to financial constraints. At a young age, he did small things. Sold the pens on the road, sold oranges in the train, even worked at the liquor base.
In an interview to Ranveer Alahabadia, he told that he had once thought of committing suicide in childhood, fed up with his father’s alcoholism and assault.
When Johnny was 13 years old, he sat on the railway track, the train was coming. Then the faces of the three sisters came in front of their eyes, as if they are saying – ‘What will happen to us?’ And after that he immediately withdrew from the track.
Johnny had said that Papa used to drink alcohol and was involved in wrongdoings. Many times I also threw his weapons.
Regarding the days of Dharavi, Johnny had said that incidents like murder were common there. At the age of seven, he first saw the body of a man.
Johnny had said about Mumbai’s gangsters Haji Mastan and Varadarajan that we knew them since childhood, have seen them from nearby. When Haji Mastan used to come, there was a crowd of people, he was very respected.
At the same time, when he was asked that you were not afraid of Haji Mastan and Varadarajan? So Johnny laughed and said, “No, we used to love him very much. He used to say,” This is my child, son. “
Johnny also said that if he had not been an artist, he would have been goons.
Mahmood, Johnny Walker, Kishore Kumar specialized in imitating
Johnny started dancing and mimicry on stage from the age of 12, where he used to copy Mahmood, Johnny Walker and Kishore Kumar.
His style was also unique while selling the pen. One day, in Ashok Kumar’s voice, he said to a boy -“Son, if there is no money, take out from Dad’s pocket and buy this Nib pen, ball pen, you will become a big man.”
Sometimes Johnny says in Shatrughan Sinha’s voice – “This pen is amazing,” sometimes in the voice of Om Prakash – “Pick up, pick up, you will become a very big man.”
At the age of 18, Johnny Lever started working in Hindustan Lever Company. When he worked in Hindustan Lever, his salary was just 600 rupees. He worked there for six years as labor.
He also used to do stage shows in the evening during the job. He used to do jobs during the day and shows at night. He mimicked officers at a function in Hindustan Unilever. Since then people started calling him Johnny. After entering the film industry, he adopted the same name.
Johnny did comedy on forums such as musical shows and Tabassum Hit Parade. The music composer couple later joined his show with Kalyanji-Anandji.
Sunil Dutt gave a chance
In 1981, he quit Unilever job and paid full attention to the stage show. In 1982, he held a world tour with Amitabh Bachchan. In a show, actor Sunil Dutt saw his performance and gave him work in his film ‘Dard Ka Rishta’.
Johnny Lever played Joseph in the film Dard Ka Rishta.
Johnny then took out an audio cassette from ‘Hansi Ki Kuchnam Naam’, which gave him recognition from house to house. During this period, he also advertised the ‘Turtle Chhap Agarbatti’, which was directed by Shekhar Kapoor.
In 1986, he performed in front of the film industry at a charity show named ‘Hope 86’. From there, producer Gul Anand offered him the film ‘Jalwa’.
After this, he appeared in films like ‘Tezaab’, ‘Kasam’, ‘Dangerous’, ‘Kishan Kanhaiya’.
In the 1990s, Johnny got a great recognition from the film ‘Baazigar’. After this, he became famous for characters like Chhota Chhatri, Aslam Bhai and Bablu. He continued to do live shows with work in the film.
His first Tamil film ‘Anabirkku Alwillai’ was released in 2011. He also appeared in the Kannada film ‘Gara’ and also worked in the Tulu language film ‘Rang’.
Johnny Lever’s personal life
Johnny Lever was married to Sujata Lever in 1984. The couple have two children Jamie and Jessie. Jamie is also an actress and comedian. At the same time, son JC is also an actor. Johnny Lever’s younger brother Jimmy Moses is an actor and stand-up comedian.
Johnny Lever’s daughter Jamie is a comedian-actress, while son JC is also an actor.
Son’s illness changed the attitude of Johnny’s life
One of the most difficult times of Johnny Lever’s life was when his son Jessie had a tumor around his neck.
Johnny’s son Jessie was only 10 years old. When a lump came out around his neck, for which many treatment and surgery attempts were made, but tumor was entangled in the veins. The doctors warned that they could be blind or paralyzed by the operation. Despite the drugs, the tumor increased and Jessie had to eat 40-50 bullets daily.
Johnny’s son Jessie has acted in films like War (2019), Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum … (2001) and Yeh Sali Aashiqui (2019).
Once the Johnny family went to America to visit. I met a pastor in a church in Jersey. The pastor advised that Jesse should be taken to the Slone Catering Hospital in New York and assured that God would fix it.
The doctors of India had refused the operation, but Johnny obeyed the pastor. Despite his wife’s hesitation, the doctor was found with the help of friends and the operation was successful.
After the operation, JC’s entire tumor left and only a small bandage remained. Please tell that this incident changed Johnny’s life. He gave up all his bad habits like alcohol.
In an interview to Ranveer Alahabadia, Johnny had told that he was angry after seeing injustice. If someone did misbehaved with a female artist at the orchestra show, he would like to teach her a lesson, but over time he learned to control himself.
Johnny had told another incident that he was shooting for a film in Bandra. In the scene, a girl was to flow from the sea to shore, she was wearing a bikini and lying on the shore. Johnny was in the role of Lever Havildar and Vinod Khanna was an inspector. After the shot was over, all the people were drinking tea and water, the girl was sitting on the towel. Then a rickshaw man came and started staring at the girl with strange eyes.
Johnny Lever got angry at the auto rickshaw, he thought that he would teach him a lesson, but he ran away.
Johnny Lever had said that to be honest, I was not suit my image, otherwise I would have broken his mouth. He does not even know what happened. We have been a collision, assault and clash in front since childhood … all this was common for us.
The show had to be done even after the death of the sister
In a podcast with his daughter Jamie, Johnny said that his sister had passed away. Everyone was crying at home, but he also had a show on the same day. He felt that the show was at 7 pm, but the friend came and told that it was 4 o’clock. The mind was heavy, yet he picked up clothes, replaced clothes in the taxi and reached the stage and performed. After the show was over, he did not even take money and returned home straight.
Anil Kapoor was pranked on phone as Shatrughan Sinha
Johnny Lever and Anil Kapoor have worked together in films like Judai (1997), Deewana Mastana (1997) and Total Dhamaal (2019).
Johnny Lever told in ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ that he had committed mischief with Anil Kapoor during the shooting of the film ‘Tezaab’.
Johnny said to Anil in the voice of Shatrughan Sinha on the phone, “Anil, I am speaking Shatrughan, meet in the evening.” Anil replied with respect, “Sir, absolutely sir.” After some time Johnny exposed his real identity, Anil was surprised and said, “Teri aisi ki tasi!”
Become a precher and serve people around the world
After the treatment of Johnny Lever’s son, the churches started going to become a precher. He had told that once it happened that whenever he touched someone, people would fall. Later he understood that this is the power of God. Many times people ask them to pray and then the sick people would get cured, evil spirits would also go away.
At that time his work in films had reduced, so he served worldwide as a precher for 13 years.
Johnny said that many times even in the flight, when someone had a medical emergency and the doctor was not present, he would go ahead and pray. Surprisingly, people’s condition improved on many such occasions.
Recently on the YouTube show of comedian Sapan Verma, he said that I used to sit on Chowpatty till 4 am. Many times the police used to come, but when I recognized, she would say- Hey Johnny brother and I used to sit in my car so that I would be safe.
Johnny had told that his body was tired due to continuous work and alcohol. Still he used to give performance. He said that I tell people- drink in the limit. I crossed the limits. I became an alcoholic. Doing all this is of no use. However, Johnny had given up alcohol 24 years ago and has not drunk alcohol since then.
Thought to sell houses when films come down in films
Between 1990 and 2000s, films were not complete without Johnny Lever, but there was a time when his downfall started. Johnny’s money was over. They were thinking of selling houses and taking a new house in Mir Road.
In a conversation with actress Kunika Sadanand, Johnny said that whatever he earned, he gave it in charity, never kept the money with him. No one used to go empty handed from his house.
In the last one and a half decade, Johnny ‘Golmaal 3’, ‘Housefull 2’, ‘Khiladi 786’, ‘Entertainment’, ‘Dilwale’ ‘Golmaal Again’, ‘Judwaa 2’, ‘Total Dhamaal’, ‘Housefull 4’, ‘Kuli no. She has appeared in films like 1 ‘,’ Hungama 2 ‘,’ Circus’.
In 2025, he appeared in ‘Bads Ravi Kumar’, ‘B Happy’, ‘Housefull 5’, now he will soon be seen in ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, which will be released in December.
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