Raju Srivastav

This article is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (January 2008)

The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia.
Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (September 2008)

राजू श्रीवस्तव Raju Srivastav
Born	December 25, 1963 (1963-12-25) (age 44) Kanpur, India
Occupation	Comedian
Years active	present
Official website

Raju Srivastav (Hindi: राजू श्रीवस्तव)(sometimes also spelt Srivastava or Shrivastav) is an Indian comedian, and one of the hosts of The Comedy Show ha ha ha.
Raju was born on 25th december 1963, in Kanpur, India in a middle class Kyastha family. Since childhood, Raju always nursed the dream of becoming a comedian because he was a very good mimic. In his school time he use to imitate his teachers. Initially he copied Amitabh Bachchan. However, later cleared himself getting label of Amitabh Bachchan, through varied performances. He agreed that when he was a college student he was influenced by Amitabh, who unknowingly was imitated by him. With dreams in his eyes, Raju landed in the concrete jungle to fulfill his dreams. But he realized that life was not a bed of roses for struggling aspirants. But he had confidence and determination in him and continued to meet people who mattered. One fine day he was thrilled when the Rajshri people signed him to play a small role in Maine Pyar Kiya.

Raju Srivastav, a talented artiste, with a flair for comedy, has done stage shows with Kalyanji Anandji, Bappi Lahiri and Nitin Mukesh in India and abroad. He has also worked in many films and serials and gave magnificent performance. His audio jokes cassette “Hasna Mana Hai” is hilarious all the way. His gags spare no one – from MPs to Laloo Prasad Yadav; from film-folk to precocious kids.

He was also noticed by Johnny Lever when he used to do stage shows before joining the film industry. Raju’s mimicry was liked and applauded by the masses and he was an important person in Jhonny Lever’s troupe.

“The Great Indian Laughter Challenge” gave him the coveted title “The King of Comedy”, but he has worked his way up to his present status slowly and steadily. He started his career from the stage where he mastered the art of mimicry. There seems to be nobody in the film industry who Raju cannot mimic to perfection. His popularity on stage first got him roles in films like “Maine Pyar Kiya”, “Baazigar” etc. where he kept his audience in splits. He has done a number of films since then but he has never let his stage performance take a back seat.

Raju is against loud and vulgar comedy. His ideals in comedy are Kishore Kumar in films and Johnny Lever on stage; his favourite actor is Amitabh Bachchan.