Popular actors and TV personalities Archana Puran Singh and Shekhar Suman, who are coming together for the upcoming comedy show ‘India’s Laughter Champion’, got emotional during the launch of the show and recalled those times when they lost their loved ones yet smiled on-camera as professionals.

While both of the veterans are known for laughing their hearts out on-screen, Archana recalled how in the last 10 years on those days when she went through turmoil in her personal life, she kept her grief aside, being part of a comedy show.

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Archana said, “I have been appearing in ‘Comedy Circus’ since 2007. After that, I also did Kapil’s show (The Kapil Sharma Show) from 2019. For all these years, people loved and remembered me for my loud laughter and being funny. Well, I am that, no doubt but no one sees the tears behind the laughter. People would think of the blessed life I have of getting paid for laughing. But there are so many trouble times, moments of sorrow I went through.”

She went on adding, “There were days when I stepped in to the set and doubted if I will be able to even smile when I have to laugh. I was very close to my mother-in-law and I was on set, shooting when she passed away. I came to know, I took a pause but then came back and worked, laughing as a professional because the show must go on. You see the laughter, not the tears behind it. It’s painful.”

Sharing his personal anecdotes, Shekhar Suman said, “When I was shooting for ‘Dekh Bhai Dekh’ I was going through a lot emotionally. I got to know that my elder son is terminally ill and the doctor said that we will not be able to save him.

“It was unimaginable how difficult it was for me to be part of a comedy show as an actor at that time. Every time the phone rang during my shooting, I thought there was an emergency or that was the end. I lost my son while filming for ‘Dekh Bhai Dekh’, in fact as a father that was the hardest.”

“But as an artiste, we are not supposed to bring our grief to the set, as a performer we are to be remembered for our craft, not for the sorrow. As Archana said that we had to be professional and run the show,” he signed off.

‘India’s Laughter Champion’, hosted by Rochelle Rao, is starting on June 11 on Sony Entertainment Television.