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Zakir Khan is an Indian musician, stand-up comedian, writer, poet, and YouTuber. He came into the limelight after winning Comedy Central’s ‘India’s Best Stand Up Comedian’ competition in 2012. He is one of the most popular stand-up comedians in India.
Wiki/Biography
Zakir Khan was born on Thursday, 20 August 1987 (age 32 years; as in 2019) in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His zodiac sign is Leo. His family has its roots in Rajasthan.
Zakir Khan’s childhood picture
He attended Indore’s St. Paul Higher Secondary School. After completing his schooling, Zakir enrolled himself in B.Com, but dropped out of the college in between. While sharing the incident, Zakir says,
Yaar, college mein rehne ka koi matlab nahi tha. Classes hum attend karte nahi the, aur degree se jyada apni khwahisho se pyaar tha.”
Being born into a family with a musical background, Zakir developed an interest in music at a very young age. He learned music under the tutelage of his father and grandfather. After dropping out of college, Zakir pursued a diploma in Sitar. He wanted to become a radio producer for which he moved to Delhi. There, he did radio programming at ARSL for a year and then, shifted to Jaipur in 2009 for an internship. After completing his internship, Zakir returned to Delhi.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 7″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Brown
Family, Caste & Wife
Zakir Khan belongs to a Muslim Family. His father, Ismail Khan is a music teacher at St. Raphael’s School, Indore. His mother, Kulsum Khan is a homemaker. He has two brothers, Zeeshan Khan (Lead Singer at Malang-The Band) and Arbaz Khan (Student). He is the grandson of the veteran Indian classical instrumentalist and vocalist, Ustad Moinuddin Khan.
Zakir Khan with his parents
Zakir Khan with his brothers
Zakir Khan with his grandfather
Zakir Khan with his family
Career
While in Delhi, Zakir tried his hands in different fields, ranging from theatre to radio. Eventually, he took up the job of a copywriter and main researcher at HT Media Ltd. He worked there for about 4 years. Later, his roommate, Vishwas, encouraged him to do open mics. Slowly, he started performing in cafes and people started liking his jokes. Gradually, his performances started receiving standing ovations. He was then called to Mumbai to write the script for a news comedy show “On Air With AIB.”
Zakir Khan performing on stage
Zakir rose to fame in 2012 after winning Comedy Central’s ‘India’s Best Stand Up Comedian.’ He was praised for his comedy style in NDTV Prime’s ‘The Rising Stars of Comedy.’ Subsequently, he received wide popularity for his punchline “Sakht Launda,” which means a guy with immense self-control who could not be easily manipulated by pretty, cunning girls.
In 2015, he wrote and co-hosted ‘On Air with AIB,’ a news comedy show. The show was telecasted on Star World, India. Some of his popular comedy shows include “Trading Station” (2014), “A Promising Game” (2017), “Haq Se Single” (2017) and “Chacha Vidhayak Hain Hamare” (2018).
In September 2017, Zakir featured as a mentor in the fifth season of “The Great Indian Laughter Challenge,” which was judged by Akshay Kumar. He has also appeared as one of the judges in Amazon Prime’s “Comicstaan Season 2.”
He has even co-hosted the 5th Annual Golden Kela Awards along with other famous comedians like Vir Das and Papa CJ.
Favourite Things
- Poets: Mirza Ghalib, John Elia
- Book: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- Film: Chhoti Si Baat (1976)
Facts/Trivia
- His hobbies include playing the Sitar, singing, and composing songs.
Zakir Khan playing the Sitar
- Interestingly, Zakir did his first comedy show with the popular comedian “Neeti Palta.”
Zakir Khan with Neeti Palta
- Zakir is fond of dogs and has a pet dog, Champ.
Zakir Khan with his pet dog
- During an interview, Zakir revealed that his family was connected with music for ages. He said,
I come from a family that has a 300-year-long relationship with music. For my parents, even getting a 9-5 job was an unorthodox thing to do.”
- Zakir credits his father for the success that he has achieved in his life.
- Surprisingly, at one point in time, Zakir and another AIB comedian, Abish Mathew were Radio Jockeys on different radio stations.
- Reportedly, his family was not happy with his decision of quitting his studies and pursuing a career in Radio. So, in order to cope up with the tension, Zakir stopped taking money from his family and lied about having a job.
- While in Jaipur, Zakir did a number of odd jobs to support his day-to-day expenses.
- Apparently, when Zakir was leaving Jaipur, he didn’t have the money to pay the rent of his room. At that time, his landlord wrote it off and also offered him some money to travel back to Delhi.
- During an interview, Zakir shared that he was bullied as a child. His classmates made fun of his complexion and appearance and such incidents made him bold and helped him make humour his shield.
- According to Zakir, he was a very lazy person.
- During an event in Delhi, when asked to comment on Gutthi’s (female lead character played by the comedian, Sunil Grover in Comedy Nights with Kapil) exit from the television show “Comedy Nights with Kapil,” Zakir said,
What Gutthi does is not comedy. Especially in Delhi, comedy has grown to become mature and versatile. Gutthi is not versatile.”
He further added,
Live comedy is very different from what you see on TV. Live shows are like telling a joke to your friend, but on TV, the jokes have to go through a lot of censorship…but Gutthi is still better than others. Kapil Sharma’s kind of comedy is based on insulting people. It’s very Punjabi. Tu mota hai, tu kaala hai, tere daant kharab hain – that’s what their jokes are about, and I don’t find it funny.”
- According to Zakir, if not a comedian, he would have been a music teacher.
- He shared in an interview that his dream project was to design a farming course for teenagers where he intended to groom their personalities.