Happy Birthday Johny Lever: Story of his stage name, other lesser-known facts about the Comedy King!

Although comedian Johny Lever enjoys a huge amount of fame now, reaching this position wasn't an easy journey for him.

Pic courtesy: Instagram/Johny Lever

New Delhi: On Bollywood comedian Johny Lever's 64th birthday (August 14), we take a look at inspiring and interesting facts about his life. He began his acting career with 1982 'Dard Ka Rishta' and has acted in more than 300 movies. He has won hearts as the comedy king and never fails to make the audience laugh with his quirky ways.

Although he enjoys a huge amount of fame now, reaching this position wasn't an easy journey for him. He started from humble beginnings as his family wasn't financially secured for the most part. Despite the hurdles, he rose as one of the pioneers of live comedy performances.

As we honour his long-spanning career and illustrious performances in Bollywood, let's take a look at some lesser-known facts about his life:

1. Johny completed his schooling from Andhra education society English high school but only till the 7th grade as he had to drop out due to financial issues. To support his family, he would work odd jobs in Mumbai, one of them was mimicking Bollywood actors.

2. Johny Lever is his stage name, his real name is John Prakasa Rao Janumala. He was given his new name at a Hindustan Lever (HLL) company function.

3. After quitting HLL, he went on to perform comedy in stage shows through which he gained a lot of prominence. Interestingly, late actor Sunil Dutt was present at one of his shows and decided to offer him his first film 'Dard Ka Rishta'.

4. Since he got his big break in the film industry, he has featured in more than 300 films. His love for the stage remained unchanged as he continued doing live shows along while he was acting in movies.

5. He got married to Sujatha Lever in 1984. The couple has two children, a daughter Jamie and a son Jessy.

The comic was last seen in 2020 Amazon Prime's 'Coolie No 1', which starred Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan. The 'Dulhe Raja' actor joined Instagram in 2019 and keeps sharing funny posts.

Happy Birthday, Johny Lever!