Johnny Lever recalls how he dropped out of school: ‘Daddy ko sharab ki adaat thi’

Johnny Lever didn’t hold back while talking about his school days and that period from his life when he left school in Class 7. In a recent interview, the comedian opened up about his childhood struggles with his alcoholic father and recounted how his class teacher loved him very much, and cared for him even when he left school. (Also read: Johnny Lever discusses Cirkus’ failure, admits there were some mistakes: ‘What can one do about that?’)

Johnny has worked in over 300 Hindi films. He rose to fame with his comic roles in films like Deewana Mastana (1997) and Dulhe Raja (1998), for which he also fetched the Filmfare Awards. Johnny was last seen in Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus which had Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma in dual roles. The film didn’t live upto the expectations of the audience and failed at the box-office. Recently, Johnny discussed the failure of the film and said that although the film didn’t do as well, it shows that the audience still expects good comedy from the stars.

Now, in a new interview, Johnny Lever revealed about his early years to Mashable India. When asked about why he dropped out at class 7, he said in an episode of The Bombay Journey, “My father was an alcoholic, due to which he never paid any attention to us, but it was my elder uncle who paid us for our fees and ration. So after a while I got infuriated and left school. But I got a lot of love while I was in school, I used to imitate everyone.”

“Even the teachers. My class teacher, Damyanti teacher, was very lovely. I am still in touch with her. When I left, she sent the students to call me and even wanted to pay the fees and clothes for me to join back the school,” he added.

Johnny has two children, daughter Jamie and son Jessy, who have also followed their father into the entertainment industry. The father-daughter duo worked together in the comedy film Housefull 2 (2019) and are now starring in Pop Kaun alongside Kunal Kemmu, Nupur Sanon, Saurabh Shukla, Chunky Panday and Rajpal Yadav.