My dad gives me tips about how I should be confident - Jamie Lever

Flipkart Video has launched a brand-new interactive quiz called For Your Information where the audiences will have a chance to win exciting prizes through the course of the show.

The series is hosted by actor-comedian Jamie Lever, daughter of celebrated Bollywood comedian Johnny Lever-  Jyothi Venkatesh

She has been waiting for all her life to have her own show

Jamie is portraying a funny, girl-next-door persona as KBC (Kinjal Bhansali Choksi) and takes viewers through interesting questions on pop-culture, sports, politics, artsture 4-5-minute episodes each day on the Flipkart App.

In this freewheeling email interview, Jamie Lever tells Jyothi Venkatesh that she has been waiting for all her life to have her own show, where she could show her skills, her talents, and show people what she can do.

Jamie, you play a budding journalist in your new show For Your Information on Flipkart video. What do you think about this character? And what about it has attracted you towards the show?

Firstly, she is such a funny character. Her name is KBC (Kinjal Bhansali Choksi). Can you imagine?

And in KBC you obviously know where Amitabh ji asks so many questions, and my character is played on that name, so we call her Kinjal Bhansali Choksi.

She is this fancy flamboyant character, who has all this information to share with her viewers and she wants you to know that too.

She is like a budding journalist, exactly how you mentioned. And I think it is quite an amazing character.

Firstly, I have always stayed away from politics, and I do not know much about sports.

But yeah, I feel like through this character, I am learning so much, so much about India, so much about the world so much about things like, who is the richest man and what is happening when and there's so much information that I'm receiving myself.

And it's fun, you know, to be able to share all this information on awareness with our audiences.

So, I feel like it is a unique character. I have never played anything like this before. And I think it is just generally exciting overall and I am just really enjoying it.

This is the first time that you are hosting an interactive fun show. And what was your experience shooting for this with FlipKart video?

This is something that I've been waiting for all my life to have my own show, where I could show my skills, my talents, and show people what I can do.

Finally, with Flipkart video, I have had this opportunity and this collaboration has been so much fun.

You know, we sit together, we work on scripts, and we work on what are all the fun things that we can incorporate, my quirks, where we can make it funnier where we can incorporate my mimicry where we can incorporate the different accents and so much more.

With this character, our team, the creative team from Flipkart video, we came up with this fun Gujarati character that we wanted to bring to the audiences.

She is a girl next door, she is a housewife, but she's also really posh at school, very street smart.

So, we thought that this would really work, and people will be able to relate. So yes, shooting for this has been excellent.

Obviously if you are doing your own show, it's going to be stressful. I was nervous. But everybody made me feel so comfortable.

People from the Flipkart video team were so comforting and supportive. It felt very natural and we got along quite well.

So, the first day was excellent. And I am looking forward to the rest of the shoot days because I know it is going to be super, super fun.

The premise of the show is about quizzing on genres such as cinema, pop culture, politics, Bollywood, and sports and all of that. How knowledgeable are you about these topics?

Well, frankly before this show I did not know as much as I do now. But, as we are shooting, I am learning new things.

It is funny because every time we shoot for these episodes, I ask people these questions and I always keep guessing the answer and everybody on the team also keeps guessing ‘Iska answer kya hoga’, option one or option two.

So, you know, while they are shooting it also each member of our team, the crew members, the creative team, everybody keeps guessing the right answer for the questions.

So, it's really fun, because we are literally just playing the game amongst ourselves while shooting it.

Also, we are all learning new things about our country and about the world. So, all in all I’m glad that this has given me an opportunity to have fun and learn so much more.

Is there anything that you have to particularly do to prepare yourself to get into the skin of the character that you play on for your information? Or does it or does that come naturally?

Accents are something that I pick up very easily. We decided that we are going to make this character - a Gujarati lady. She comes from a middle-class household where she is a little frustrated at heart.

When we started brainstorming and coming up with her story, who she is and where she comes from, I think I just naturally started getting these ideas.

How she will talk, her body language or her unique mannerisms all happened naturally. Plus, like I said, an accent is something that I love doing.

I love putting on different accents all the time. So it was easy to put on a Gujarati accent as well.

I also have a lot of Gujarati friends, so I did a little bit of research and I asked them a couple of questions.

I even asked them a couple of slang words that I could use. I did my homework for this role and I think it is coming out well.

To what extent has your father Johnny Lever Sir, shaped you? Or what have you imbibed from him that you are implementing in your career?

There are tips that he gives me every single day, even now, after so many years of working in the industry, there are things I learn from him every day.

Initially, he told me that you should just observe everything that is going on around and be sensitive to everything that is happening around you.

He asked me to just take in and grasp as much as I can. He has always told me to read more, see the news, read up on sports and just be updated.

So, these are things that he started telling me very early on, when I started working and I took that very seriously.

Then I just started observing my surroundings, like okay, why is this person smiling this way? Or what just happened when this guy slipped on a banana peel? Why did he stand up this way?

It helps one realize how different people react to different situations and how humor comes out of that.

That's how things started for me, but there are also other things that I learned from him every single day.

These are my secret tips that he gives me, and I am not going to share them with anybody.

So, it is a family secret. Everyday even for the show for ‘For Your Information’ by Flipkart video, he was constantly giving me tips, constantly telling me about how I should be confident, how much work I need to put in etc. And so yes, he helps me out every day, no matter what I am working on.

Jamie, tell us about your upcoming projects. What are you working on?

I am working on something for the OTT platforms, I am writing my own web show and that is something that I really want to put out, hopefully this year.

I have shot for a feature film at the end of 2020 and that will be releasing this year. Additionally, I am testing and auditioning for a couple of more film projects.

So, hopefully, you will see me in a lot of films this year. However, the main thing right now that I am focusing on is FYI for Flipkart video.

This is really the biggest project of this year for me and this year started on such a good note with this show.

I am putting all my energies into this one, I really want the show to click with people and I want people to enjoy it, I want people to download this app and watch the show on a regular basis.

Because there is a lot for the audience's in the show itself, they can be entertained, but at the same time, they can take back a lot of prizes.

So, I am excited about this project for now as it’s the biggest one for me yet.