Did you know Varun Grover wrote monologues for Farhan Akhtar’s variety show Oye! It’s Friday! Or that among his first ever credits is a spoof of Dhoom titled Ghoom? How does he continue to do hard-hitting satire in today’s political climate? These are just some of the things that Lallantop’s Saurabh Dwivedi gets Grover to open up about on the latest episode of Guest In The Newsroom. The three-hour-long freewheeling conversation unpacks large chunks of Grover’s life— from studying at the prestigious IIT-BHU to finding his footing in the cut-throat entertainment industry on his way to becoming one of the country’s strongest comedic voices. Here are some things we uncovered about one of our favourite comedians and took away from the inspiring chat.

He Had Big First Bencher Energy

While most people would imagine a comedian to be the class clown in his younger years, Grover was a studious one. He stood first in his school during the 10th standard CBSE exams scoring about 83-84 percent marks. While that might not be great by today’s standards it was enough for people to push Grover to pursue the sciences and study engineering.

He Was Bullied Growing Up

He might have been a star student, but he wasn’t yet a star. At school in Lucknow, Grover was subjected to bullying by his peers due to his weight, and by his teachers because of his Punjabi accent. A lonely kid, he responded by trying to seek validation from everyone around him. He says that’s the reason he still has trouble saying ‘no’ to people in any scenario. He’s still trying to win people over in his head.

These experiences also led him to take up humour as a defensive mechanism. Self-deprecation became the norm for him. “Agar woh nahi hoti bullying, mujhe lagta hai bada mushkil hota ki main standup comedian hota,” he says.

He Wrote Comedy Monologues For Farhan Akhtar

In 2008, Farhan Akhtar hosted a variety talk show called Oye! It’s Friday! Grover served as a writer on the show, working on the opening comedy monologue that Akhtar used to deliver à la Jay Leno. But having written for people like Shekhar Suman, Suresh Menon and Vinay Pathak—who elevated the material with their performances—Grover wasn’t the biggest fan of Akhtar’s delivery. He also discovered that Akhtar was making 100 times the money he was. That’s when he decided to bite the bullet and perform his material himself.

He Wrote A Spoof Of ‘Dhoom’

Grover’s first credit as a screenplay writer was Ghoom—a parody of the Bollywood film Dhoom. Produced by MTV, it starred Sumeet Raghavan in the lead role.

Vir Das Gave His First Standup Break

In late 2000s, Vir Das hosted an open mic night titled Weirdass Hamateur Nights. It served as the launchpad for the who’s who of Indian comedy today. Think Tanmay Bhat, Rohan Joshi, Varun Thakur et al. Grover ended up enrolling for one of these open mics and came out on top. This was the first time he had taken the stage and his win was the push he needed to keep coming back.

How He Navigates Today’s Political Climate

It’s no surprise that Grover has been reprimanded for his political comedy on numerous occasions. He’s been pulled up by an angry person at Andheri station and been subject to the vocal disapproval of a couple all the way in Auckland. But what keeps him going is his incessant need to say his piece, and a relentless zeal to overcome the various challenges that society at large throws his way. “No artist I know will refuse a challenge,” he says. And everything that’s happening today is merely a challenge for him as an artist. Grover mentions how Kunal Kamra disagrees with this philosophy of his but at the end of the day, you pick the battles you want to fight, he says.

He Loves His Hands

While growing up, Grover had tons of body image issues due to his weight. If there was one thing he loved about himself though, it was his hands. And as a writer, he spends a lot of time looking at his digits while he’s typing or writing. That’s why he paints his nails. If you’re going to spend the entire day staring at something, it might as well have a pretty colour, right?