MUMBAI : The well-known actor, comedian, TV host and dancer Jaaved Jaaferi spoke about late 'King of Comedy' Raju Srivastava. What made him popular was his very earthy and deeply rooted comedy, Jaaferi said.

He said: "I knew Raju because when he started off his career, he was doing small stage shows. At that point I was impressed. He was a simple guy, but his humour was very earthy, very Indian rooted, coming from a small town, but catering to a very wider Indian sensibility. Not only on shows, but wherever he stood among the people, he used to make them laugh."

Jaaved has been part of several TV shows and movies. He also dubbed animated series like 'Mickey Mouse', 'Goofy' and 'Don Karnage' in Hindi and also hosted award shows like Filmfare and others.

He recalled looking at Raju's performance in the dance competition series 'Boogie Woogie' which was judged by him.

"He came on 'Boogie Woogie' as a performer and then I did a show 'JBC' that was a political, social satire on a channel around 2002 or 2003 and he was an integral part of the show as an actor. And in fact I spoke to him over several times."

Jaaved added: "After Johnny Lever bhai, Raju connected very well with the audience. Coming from a small town he knew the nerves of the non-English speaking sector and in fact he bridged the gap between English and non-English speaking audience through his comedy shows. His contribution as a comedian was great and he will be missed always for that. He was too young to go."

SOURCE IANS