In Pictures – Johnny Lever’s Inspiring life journey

Johnny Lever

The real name of Johnny Lever is John Prakasa Rao Janumala. He worked in the Hindustan Lever factory in Mumbai along with his father and while at work he would entertain his colleagues by imitating an American singer, Elvis Presley. He was also asked to perform at a function organised by Hindustan Lever, after which his co-workers and officers of the factory began calling him "Johnny Lever".

Johnny Lever

Johnny Lever was brought up in Mumbai's King's Circle area (Dharavi) where he studied in Andhra education society English high school. Due to financial problems in his family, he had to drop out of the school after completing seventh grade. Later, he started working odd jobs, such as selling pens on the streets of Mumbai by imitating Bollywood stars and dancing to the songs of Bollywood stars.

Johnny Lever

Apart from Mumbai, Johnny also spent his early years in Yakutpura, an old city of Hyderabad where he learnt the unique style of comedy acting.

Johnny Lever

Johnny tied the knot with Sujatha and has two children, a daughter named Jamie who is a stand-up comedian too and a son named Jesse.

Johnny Lever

His first major success came with Abbas-Mustan's Baazigar, and after that he was seen in almost every movie as a comedian or supporting actor. Despite being busy with his movie roles, he continued to do live shows.

Johnny Lever

He did a lot of shows and world tours with legendary music director duo Kalyanji-Anandji. One of his first big tour was 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'.

Johnny Lever

At the age of 10, Johnny's son Jesse was detected with tumour. That incident changed his life and it made him forget comedy. He did only one film and one show in that year. The actor said, "It was God’s will. I had always been a religious person, but one incident changed my life. My son was diagnosed with cancer. I was helpless and turned to God for help. I stopped working in films and spent all my time praying for him. Ten days later, when he was taken for a test, the doctors were surprised because the cancer had vanished. It was the beginning of a new life for me." Johnny was born in a Telugu Christian family. However after this incident he developed faith in Christianity. He once said, “I was born a Roman Catholic but had never tried to read the Bible. Now, I ensure that I read it completely. I don’t boast about being a holy person but I know that prayer can do miracles."

Johnny Lever

In the 1980's, Johnny released his mimicry/comedy album, 'Hansee Ke Hungame', which became a hit in India and world over, increasing his fame to another level.

Johnny Lever

He started to perform in musical shows and after earning fame he joined the group of Kalyanji-Anandji, a legendary music director duo.

Johnny Lever

Johnny has acted in more than three hundred Bollywood films including the recent ones 'Dilwale' and 'Housefull 3'.