Sharma won the stand-up comedy reality show, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge season 3 in 2007.[3] He has hosted and produced television comedy shows such as Comedy Nights with Kapil and Family Time with Kapil. He has won seasons of the comedy show Comedy Circus along with various partners and in 2011 participated in the singing reality show Star Ya Rockstar, where he finished as the second runner-up.[4]
Sharma was born in a Punjabi family in the city of Amritsar in Punjab, India as Kapil Punj.[8][9] His father Jeetendra Kumar Punj was a head constable in Punjab Police, while his mother Janak Rani is a homemaker.[10] His father was diagnosed with cancer in 1997 and died in 2004 at AIIMS in Delhi.[11] He studied at Shri Ram Ashram Senior Secondary School and Hindu College, in Amritsar. He is featured in the list of prominent alumni of Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar.[12] Sharma has a brother named Ashok Kumar Sharma, who is a police constable and a sister named Pooja Pawan Devgan.[13]
Sharma with wife, Ginni Chatrath in 2018
Sharma married Ginni Chatrath in Jalandhar on 12 December 2018.[14] They have two children – a daughter and a son.[15]
Career
Rise to prominence (2007-2012)
Sharma rose to fame after winning the comedy reality television show The Great Indian Laughter Challenge's third season in 2007, for which he won a cash prize of ₹10 lakh (equivalent to ₹30 lakh or US$35,000 in 2023).[16] He had previously worked in the Punjabi show Hasde Hasaande Ravo on MH One channel.[17] Sharma has stated that he moved to Mumbai to become a singer.[8]
He participated in Sony's Comedy Circus[18] and went on to win six seasons of the show.[19] Sharma was seen as a contestant in the show Ustaadon Ka Ustaad in 2008. In 2011, he participated as a contestant in Zee TV's singing reality show Star Ya Rockstar, he finished as runner up.[4]
Established comedian and film career (2013-present)
At the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year awards 2013, Sharma was felicitated with the Indian of the Year award in the entertainment category by veteran actor Amol Palekar.[24] In the same year he did live stage shows in Oman.[6] During the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, he was appointed the Brand Ambassador by the Delhi Election Commission.[25]
Sharma made his Bollywood debut as the male lead in the movie Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon, a romantic-comedy directed by Abbas Mustan opposite four actresses, Elli AvrRam, Manjari Phadnis, Simran Kaur Mundi and Sai Lokur.[30] The film was released on 25 September 2015 to mixed reviews from critics but did record-breaking opening day business for a debut.[31][30][32] In the same year he signed and paid to do six live shows in North America but the event organiser Amit Jaitly alleged that Sharma did not show up in one city and thus filed a court case for breach of contract against Sharma in New York's court. Jaitly also accused Sharma is not taking his phone calls, the case is pending in New York's court.[33]
In 2017, he did not record his TV show multiple times and cancelled shootings, due to several actors like Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan and their crew having to return from the sets when Kapil Sharma did not show up. Later Kapil Sharma was admitted into an Ayurvedic ashram in Karnataka to leave his Alcohol addiction but he left the ashram before attending the full treatment of 40 days, in 12 days. He told DNA (newspaper) in an interview that he had suffered from high blood pressure and other health issues. Before this Sharma assaulted his employee and fellow comedian on his show, Sunil Grover after drinking alcohol and abusing other fellow comedians. After this Grover quit Sharma's TV show.[36]
His second movie Firangi was released on 1 December 2017. Directed by Rajiev Dhingra and produced by Sharma himself, Firangi was a period drama film set in the year 1920. Sharma played the role of Manga. Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India in a review wrote, 'Firangi is a boring film', gave 2.0/5 stars and other critics, panned it for a bad story, and slow speed.[37][38] It emerged as a big flop at the box-office.[39] The 25 crore film managed to earn 10 crores and Sharma suffered losses.[40]
His next show was launched on 25 March 2018 stating as Family Time With Kapil Sharma which ended on 1 April after only 3 episodes. In 2018, he produced a Punjabi movie named Son of Manjeet Singh which was released on 12 October 2018. His show The Kapil Sharma Show was renewed with a new season which started airing on 29 December 2018, produced by Salman Khan.[41]
In 2020, it was announced he will star in a kids comedy show, titled The Honey Bunny Show With Kapil Sharma on Sony Yay.[42] In January 2020, Kapil Sharma - Krushna Abhishek and other members of his Sony TV show did live show in Dubai of United Arab Emirates.[43]
In January 2022, it was announced that a biopic on his life is under development. Titled Funkaar the film will be directed by Mrighdeep Singh Lamba.[44]
The Kapil Sharma Show initiated airing on Sony on 10 September 2022. The show's one of the main actor Krushna Abhishek left the show after monetary differences.[45] Before the start of shoot in June–July, Sharma did live shows in North America.[33] In 2023, Kapil Sharma was the lead actor in the movie Zwigato, directed by Nandita Das.
Sharma sang his first song "Alone" with Guru Randhawa with a video published by T-Series featuring Sharma and Yogita Bihani in the leading roles. The song was aired on YouTube on 9 February 2023.[49][50]
Controversies
In 2016, Sharma tagged Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in a tweet and alleged that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) took a 500,000-rupee bribe from him for construction of his office. “I am paying 15 crores income tax from last five years and still I have to pay 5 lacs to bribe to BMC office for making my office Narendra Modi, Yeh hain aapke achhe din?", he tweeted. In response chief of BMC's vigilance department asked him the names of the people who took bribes and assured him to take stringent action against them. It was later revealed that Sharma himself was doing illegal activities involving work being done on his properties. BMC issued a stop work notice to him and asked him to stop illegal extensions work in his two bungalows, ground in Andheri and told him to demolish illegal work in the next 24 hours. On 4 August 2016, BMC demolished parts of the extensions and their officials alleged that Kapil Sharma made internal changes on his properties and office without legal permission from BMC.[3]
In 2018, Sharma did a show for the Pakistan Super League in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, angering right-wing groups in India who were hostile to the idea of a collaboration with their neighbouring country.[51] Right-wing politician and Maharashtrian party member Shiv Sena slammed Sharma and said, "Kapil Sharma is making a mockery of India's honour. He just wants to earn money and doesn't care about the country, we strongly condemn Sharma for performing during PSL", Sena said. The situation between India and its western neighburing nation has been especially bad for several years since the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, an unprecedented terrorist attack in which 168 people died and 238 were severely injured.[52][53]
In 2018, Kapil Sharma had an argument with journalist Vicky Lalwani of SpotboyE in a recorded telephone conversation, later leaked by Lalwani. Sharma used foul language and asked the journalist his reason for writing negative and biased articles about him (Sharma). After the conversation went viral on social media, Sharma filed a police complaint against Vicky Lalwani, along with his ex-managers Preeti Simoes and Neeti Simoes, for trying to extort INR 25 lakhs from him as well as alleging in a police complaint that both sisters used to take money from the people who arrived in Film City, Mumbai to see his show and Preeti-Neeti manufactured miss understandings between him and his fellow comedians of his show and arriving guests.[54] Simoes condemned all of these allegations as false and made-up stories. Preeti Simoes also claimed she had been Sharma's girlfriend for 8 years until his engagement.[40][55] She and her sister Neeti Simoes worked in Kapil Sharma's production or with him for eight years until 2017.[56] She claimed that trouble erupted between Preeti and Kapil after he announced his engagement with Ginni Chatrath in March 2017. Sharma also abused SpotboyE and its editor Vicky Lalwani through a series of tweets, which his employees tried to cover up by saying his account was hacked until Sharma later confessed that the abusive tweets were written by himself. On 8 April 2018, SpotboyE filed a counter police report against Sharma for intimidation, abuse and threats.[57]
Activism
Sharma has been known for his efforts in promoting animal rights. He and the cast of Comedy Nights with Kapil appeared in a PETA campaign to promote the adoption of homeless cats and dogs.[58] In July 2014, he adopted a homeless dog, a retired police dog from Mumbai. He has also campaigned to save tortured elephants across the country.[59]
Sharma was nominated in 2014 for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spread awareness among people for cleanliness and other hygiene-related social issues.[60] For his contribution towards the mission through his show, he was invited to the Rashtrapati Bhavan by President Pranab Mukherjee in September 2015 to acknowledge his contribution.[61]
