Exclusive: Comedy Circus fame Saloni Daini aka Gangubai on comparisons with comedian Bharti Singh, ‘People would think I am her daughter’

The cute Gangu bai aka Saloni Daini of Comedy Circus is now all grown up and looks pretty. The 19-yr-old recalls the time when she would be addressed as Jr. Bharti Singh and often people would confuse her as the comedian’s daughter. In an all-exclusive chat with ETimes TV, Saloni opened up on facing the camera at a very young age, laughing over harsh comments, weight loss journey and more. By: Sukarna Mondal

Being in showbiz, I had always been in comedy shows. There people would call me Choti Bharti. They would also think that I am Bharti’s daughter. When I would go for live shows, I would take my mom along, people would ask me ‘Where is your mom?’ I would point them towards my mom and they said, ‘Oh we thought Bharti is your mom.’ In school there were few kids who would mock my weight.

It is one of the best journeys I have had. I didn’t expect anything like this ever. When I was in 1st standard, I wasn’t supposed to work and do comedy. But suddenly, Chhote Miyan came up and at that moment I never thought I could actually do comedy. So it was very surprising and I realised that this is the thing that I love. And I would not do anything accept comedy and acting. This has been the best part in my life and I can never leave it.

Gangubai is my favourite character. I even have a tattoo of ‘Gangubai’ inked on my hand. When I am playing Gangubai, I am the most confident person – I can speak anything and I can do anything I want. I can do anything on stage. But when I am Saloni, I am very calm and ‘shant’. Gangubai is the one that gives me confidence. So when people call me ‘Gangubai’, I love it. That’s my favourite character. I would love being called ‘Gangubai’ even in future. Having said that, I would love to work as Saloni.

School life, in the beginning when I had just shifted to Mumbai in my fourth standard, it was very different from other kids. When I entered school, there was a big line of students standing outside my classroom during lunch break. My teacher used to hide me behind the benches and would say ‘She is absent, don’t come’. After a year, things became normal. They used to treat me as a normal student and I don’t like being treated differently.

This is the first time I am sharing my weight-loss story. When lockdown had started, I would eat so much ghar pe. Mom would cook momos, butter chicken, cakes and things like that. One day I was sitting in front of my laptop, watching shows. And suddenly, the screen locked and saw my face on the laptop. And I look very chubby. I was 80kgs or something that time. So I was like this is the point when I have to lose weight for myself. I just wanted to lose weight to be fit and healthy. I followed a diet and worked out every day. Now I am 58. Lockdown has made me lose weight. I would like to thank lockdown because I couldn’t go out and eat junk food.

I am that person, who thinks a lot before posting anything. I keep thinking if I look good from this angle or that angle. I also receive a lot of hate comments, comments on my weight, but now I want to change that and not think much while posting on social media. There are people on social who are way more confident like Aashika (Bhatia). She is so confident and posts her pics on social media. Right now, I think so much that my posts are also quite less on social media. But being a comedian, I want to post more funny videos and not think what people think about me.

I would get comments like ‘Bhains lag rahi hai’, ‘kitni moti hai’, ‘kitna khayegi, ekdin foot jayegi’ and things like that. But mujhe bahut maza aate hai yeh sab padh k (I enjoy a lot reading them). I read them with my friends and keep laughing. People who write such comments, they are afraid enough to not show their faces but they can write such things for so many people. Sometimes I do feel low, but I move on quickly. I work towards better things in life and not think about such people. Now I have lost 22kgs, during the lockdown.