Prominent film comedians at the inaugural ceremony of Comedy Club in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 25: Harihara Mohapatra is a comedian with a cause. In a bid to bring the funny men and women under the spotlight, he has started a unit called Comedy Club. The club had its inaugurated ceremony at IDCOL auditorium in the city on Wednesday morning.

The club has almost all celebrated as well as upcoming male and female comedians except for Pappu Pom Pom, who is at present the most famous Odia comedian. The objective of the club is to promote the comedian community as a single unit.

“We are a complete entertainment package with stand-up comedians, satirists, dancers, singers, magicians and humorists — all under one banner, who can be invited to perform at various events. We will provide platform to budding artistes whose art needs to be recognised,” said Mohapatra.

Many comedians believe that they deserve more respect and better remuneration in the film and television industry as they are more often than not in the periphery.

“After the hero, it is the comedian who can ensure success of the film. Comedians can cure patients better than doctors,” said Mohapatra. Jayiram Samal, the well-known funny man of Odisha said: “With the kind of stressful life we are all leading, laughing has become both a necessity and a luxury.”

Among others, male comedians Jeevan Panda, Debu Bramha, Salil Mitra, Pragyan Khatua, Niranjan Acharya, Nonsense Mani and women comedians Sneha, Anjali, Lina and Pratibha Das attended the gathering. Many also performed on the occasion for their fellow comedians.

While some comedians were eyeing a bright future for themselves, others had little hope. “Forget about women comedians, even our male counterparts do not get much importance. Our job is to come on the screen for a fraction of second and make others laugh with our punch lines,” said Pratibha Das.

Unlike Pratibha, Niranjan Acharya, an actor feels that the popularity of the comedians would rise if they do more situational comedy. Citing the example of Kapil Sharma, who is a rage these days, Niranjan said: “Earlier, comedy had only punch lines, but now one needs to act as well. A comedian who adapts with the current trends is mostly likely to thrive,” he said.

On the absence of Pappu, many whispered that he has become too big a star to be seen with us.