Johnny Lever

He also acted in a Tulu movie, Rang. He also speaks Tulu fluently, influenced by his neighbours in Mumbai. His first Tamil feature film was Anbirkku Alavillai produced by SIMPL (Shepherd India Media Pvt. Ltd.), released in 2011. He also had a special appearance in one Telugu feature film, Criminal directed by Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt.

His first major success came with Baazigar, and after that he was seen in movies as a supporting actor/comedian. Despite being busy with his movie roles, he continued to do live shows. One of his most memorable live performances was an impersonation of Michael Jackson at the 1999 Filmfare Awards. His most acclaimed performance was the character of "Babulal" in the film, Baazigar, directed by Abbas-Mustan. He is also remembered for some of his other famous characters, like "Chotta Chattri", "Aslam Bhai", etc.

Johnny Lever is an Indian film actor and one of the most noted comedians in Hindi cinema. Lever is one of the first stand-up comedians in India. Lever has received thirteen Filmfare Awards nominations in Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role, and has won the award twice, for his work in Deewana Mastana (1997) and Dulhe Raja (1998). He began his career in 1984, and has acted in more than three hundred Bollywood films.

Lever's first appeared in an episode of sitcom Zabaan Sambhalke as Johnny Utolandand in 1993. Lever also appeared on Zee TV in his own show, Johny Aala Re. In 2007, he appeared as a judge on the stand-up reality show Comedy Circus. In 2017 Lever joined the cast of Partners as Commissioner Googol Chatterjee.

He recorded a comedy cassette called Hasi Ke Hangame which gave him recognition at homes via the audio mode. During this period, he also did a few commercials for Kachua chhap incense, directed by Shekhar Kapur. In 1986, he performed in a charity show called "Hope 86", in front of members of the Hindi film industry as a filler. His talent was recognized, which resulted in producer Gul Anand offering him the film Jalwa, alongside Naseeruddin Shah.

He started to perform stand-up comedy in musical shows (orchestras), Tabassum Hit Parade and after earning fame, joined the group of Kalyanji-Anandji, a music direction duo. Even before joining Hindustan Lever, he was giving stage performances. Because of his growing absenteeism and since he was earning well from stage shows, he quit HLL in the year 1981. He did a lot of shows and world tours with them, one of his first big tours being with Amitabh Bachchan in 1982. At one of his shows, actor Sunil Dutt noticed his talent and potential and offered him his first movie Dard Ka Rishta.