Kapil Sharma birthday: When he talked of life before stardom, getting sister married from Laughter Challenge prize money
Kapil Sharma has seen his fair share of struggle to reach the kind of success that he enjoys today. On his birthday, let us revisit the time he talked about life before he was a star.
Kapil Sharma maybe one of the most well known television stars of the country right now but his journey to success has not been without struggle. Before he made his way into people's hearts through his shows such as Comedy Nights with Kapil and The Kapil Sharma Show, the comedian had to jump through many hoops and see desperate times in his life.
Kapil, who turns 40 on April 2, Friday, started his journey with The Great Indian Laughter Challenge in 2007, which he won. Kapil took home ₹10 lakh as the prize money but did you know how much that amount meant for him?
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In an interview in 2014, Kapil spoke to a leading daily about how he paid for his sister's engagement ceremony with the prize money. "In January, 2007, we fixed my sister’s marriage, but her mother-in-law wanted us to do a ring ceremony. We had ₹6 lakhs out of which 3.5 lakhs had been spent on my dad (his medical expenses), so we were left only with ₹2.5 lakhs to get her married. We could not have bought a ring with that money. I came to Mumbai in April and as luck would have it, I became the winner of Laughter Challenge winning ₹10 lakh. I called my sister at night, post the show and said, ‘Buy your ring.’ I then started doing shows and made ₹30 lakh. That was good enough to get her married," he had said.
Kapil is now one of the most successful stars of the Indian entertainment industry. His two mega successful shows have even landed him on Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list on 11th and 18th spots in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Kapil has always said that his popularity is a result of 15 years of hard work. “The success of the show wasn’t overnight. I honed my skills, and got enough experience to know what would work. My show is popular, as we don’t have below-the-belt humour, which is the easiest thing to do. People trust us to have clean jokes that a family audience would enjoy without causing embarrassment. The audience relates to our jokes, and my team works really hard to deliver quality content every week," he told Hindustan Times in an 2015 interview.
Kapil has also had his fair share of ups and downs since tasting success. A few years ago, he had a major fallout with his co-star on The Kapil Sharma Show, Sunil Grover. The controversy turned public opinion strongly against Kapil but he stuck through and relaunched his show. Slowly and steadily, he rebuilt his goodwill among the audience and got back to doing what he does best, making his fans laugh.
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