‘Kapil touched my feet’

Once a popular comedian, Raju Srivastava opens up on competition, ‘Nach Baliye’ and his political ambitions

With Kapil Shar ma ruling the comedy scene on the small screen, Raju Srivastava has now become a rare entity. Believing in the change Raju says, “Kapil is doing well and g ar nering the highest TRPs, I am not at all jealous of him. I remember he would always come and touch my feet. I told him that he is very talented and would definitely make it big one day.”

Raju tried out his luck with a show on a dif ferent channel earlier but f ailed to g ar ner eyeballs. However, the stand up comedian is now trying his hand at dancing with his wife Shikha in the sixth season of the reality show ‘Nach Baliye’. “My wife was very uncomfor table with the idea of dancing hence we rejected the of fer thrice. Being a housewife she was not very open to it, but after little coaxing from the family members, she ag reed to perfor m. She took up the dance show as a challenge. I also encouraged her and said that she has talent to show,” says Raju. But Shikha was given some strict instructions from her mother in law while perfor ming on national television. Adds Raju, “When I told my mother that Shikha is perfor ming on the show, she instantly said, ‘I don’t have any problems, but ask her to kee p her head covered with her saree.’”

There are several other television ‘jodi’ perfor ming on this reality show. A confident Raju says, “I have done singing and dancing at several mar riage ceremonies and ‘baraat’, so I know a little bit of it. Now I am going to incor porate all of that in this show.” Known to imitate Bollywood’s superstar Amitabh Bachchan, Raju states that he will stay away from doing that on ‘Nach Baliye’.

Apart from kee ping his onscreen presence alive, the comedian has jumped head on into politics. Reveals Raju, “Since I belong to Kanpur, I have joined politics from there. I want to make the city g arbage free and also work on the electricity problem there. Also I want to clean up the river Ganga. People usually feel that Bollywood celebrities can bring about a positive change hence I am getting a lot of positive suppor t. Therefore I do not want to dishear ten them. I will see to it that I meet their demands and bring a smile on their f ace.”