Kapil Sharma opened up on the time that he was written off and his show went off air. The comedian credited wife Ginni Chatrath for being his pillar who encouraged him to return to screens.
Actor-comedian Kapil Sharma’s comedy show, The Kapil Sharma Show has completed over 500 episodes. The show has been a hit among the audience ever since it went on air on Colors with the title Comedy Night With Kapil. Recently, the comedian shared the story behind the inception of his show. He also shared how he overcame the difficult phase of his life when he had to shut down the show that made him popular among the masses.
Talking about the time when he was written off and his show went off air, Kapil said he learnt a lot from that phase. “At that time, I stopped trusting people. They would say something on my face and something else behind my back. I shut my show down even though nobody asked me to do so,” he said.
At that difficult juncture, it was Kapil’s wife Ginny who stood by him. He credits her for being his “strong pillar” as his mother “had no idea about what mental illness is, she is an innocent person from a village.” He said that even he was not aware of mental illness and got the details from media. Kapil said it was Ginni who encouraged him to start his show again.
“I decided to respond to naysayers through my show. I understood it was my show which got me the love of the audience and recognition. Till when will you keep fighting with people on Twitter? (laughs). But it was that time that taught me a lot.”
He also revealed how his show began initially. Kapil said he was called to the Colors office to host the celebrity dance reality show, Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa. “I was called to the Colors office. They asked me if I will host Jhalak Dikhla Jaa. I asked them what will I have to do. They said you and Maniesh Paul will host it. I said fine and they asked me to meet BBC, the production house.” Kapil told RJ Nishant during an interview.
He added, “I went there and there, after looking at me, she said, ‘Aap bahut mote hain. Aap thoda wazan kam karo (You are very fat. Lose some weight).’ I told Colors, ‘What is all this?’ Then the channel called her and told her, ‘the guy is good, let’s get him on board as host, will see about the weight later.’ So, I asked them, ‘Why don’t you make a comedy show?”
On his suggestion, the channel asked Kapil if he has any idea, to which Kapil agreed, despite having no idea. He requested two days time and went home to think about what he can do well.
“I enjoyed doing standup, sketch comedy, costume comedy. So I planned to bring together all the elements I am good at, put them in one show. I made the pitch, they asked me how long it would be. I gave them the lowdown. After standup, gags, celebrity interviews and all, five minutes’ time still remained. But when the show was shot, it went up to 120 minutes. They wanted only 70 minutes of content. It became difficult for them to edit it.” Kapil shared, adding that they had planned only 25 episodes but because of the love it got from the audience, it went up to 500 episodes and is still on air.
The Kapil Sharma Show airs on Sony TV on weekends at 9.30 pm.
