A granny wielding the willow was the cynosure of the audience. It’s not the ongoing IPL but a match played on ‘Jabardast’, the popular comedy show on ETV.
Her traditional attire, histrionics and sharp wit in dealing with the umpire, evoked peals of laughter from the guests and judges alike. One will be puzzled to meet ‘her’ backstage. It is hard to believe that the ‘granny’ is, in fact, a young man from Chodavaram in Visakhapatnam district!
He is M.S.R. Srinivas, who has carved a niche for himself as a comedy artiste on the small screen. Wondering who he is? He is none other than ‘Rocket Raghava’, team leader of one of the teams of ‘Jabardast’. The team leaders are given peculiar names to catch the attention of viewers. The ‘R’ in M.S.R. stands for ‘Raghavendra’ and it was shortened to make it sound modern.
Hailing from an average middle-class family, the comedy bug seems to have bitten him quite early in life. “I used to perform comedy skits, when I was studying in 6th class at our school in Chodavaram. My performances at the school annual day used to come in for a lot of appreciation from friends,” Mr. Raghava told The Hindu.
“I nursed a desire to become a celebrity but the comedy performances gave me little scope. I started drawing cartoons, and when I was in my degree, my cartoons were published in ‘Andhra Jyothi’ daily. I joined the ‘Visakha Cartoonistula Sangham’ and got the first prize for my cartoons in 1998.”
“Though my cartoons used to be appreciated by the readers, I felt that people do not know the man behind the cartoon and decided to foray into ‘mimicry’. The Visakhapatnam Kendra of All India Radio (AIR) gave me the post of a ‘casual announcer’. I worked for six months but was not satisfied with it as I thought I should have a bigger platform to prove my talent. I resigned the job and moved to Hyderabad.
He worked in 20 TV serials and performed comedy roles in over 100 films including the Pawan Kalyan starrer ‘Attarintiki Daredi’ and Jr. NTR’ s ‘Badshah’. He first gained recognition through the popular comedy programme on Gemini TV ‘Navvu Navvinchu’ but it was his character of ‘Rocket Raghava’ in ‘Jabardast’ that established him as a popular comedian.