Entertainment / Was told I'm too fat, need to lose weight to host a dance reality show: Kapil Sharma

Mumbai: Comedian and television host Kapil Sharma has revealed the story behind landing his own show on Colors TV. After appearing on The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, Comedy Circus and other comedy shows, Kapil landed his own comedy chat show in 2016, The Kapil Sharma Show. Over the years, he has interviewed multiple celebrities and delivered more than 500 episodes.

Speaking about the inception of the show, Kapil told RJ Nishant during an episode of Fever FM's Bounce Back Bharat Festival that he was approached by Colors to host Jhalak Dikhhlaa Jaa.

“This wasn't a show actually. I went to the Colors office, they had called me over, asking if I could host a show. I asked them which one? They said Jhalak Dikhhlaa Jaa. I asked them what will I be required to do? They said you and Maniesh Paul will host it,” he said.

“I said fine and they told me to meet a production house called BBC. I went to meet them and after looking at me, she said, ‘Aap bahut mote hain. Aap thoda wazan kamm karo (You are very fat. Lose some weight).' I told the channel about what she told me, said, 'What is all this?' But the channel called her, told her ‘the guy is good, let's get him onboard as host, he'll lose the weight later.' So, I asked them, 'Why don't you think about making a comedy show?,” he added.

“They told me to make a pitch but I asked them for two days' time as I had no ideas. I went back home and really thought about things that I can actually 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 just 70 minutes of content,” Kapil said.

“They could not figure out how to chop it. It's difficult to realise when you go overboard when you are chatting. We are all big on chatting anyway. But the show got so much love, still does. We had planned for 25 episodes but we had already finished 500 episodes when we began the current season,” he added.