In fact, my college professor Kandasamy used to call me direct-tuck-kare, says Rambala, on being inherently funny.

The rise and fall of Lollu Sabha: Director Rambala on the untold story.

Nearly 15 years after its initial airing, the popular comedy show is now being re-telecast during this lockdown season.

We catch up with director Rambala who takes us back to the time when Santhanam had not yet become a household name and was struggling with a salary of 1,500.

It was a four-page proposition for an inventive show a first-of-its-kind for a television channel, which then was testing waters in the soap opera format and was looking for viable material to boost its TRP ratings.

The idea, on paper, seemed bizarrely original and wildly funny, prompting a green light from the channel.

But the decision, at that point, was perceived as a double-edged sword since none of the parties could remotely gauge the outcome of what they had created, in the first place.

There were no big names involved, no promotions and, in fact, not even a it-is-coming-soon indication to the viewers.

But when the show finally aired, it left the audience in splits for its distinct brand of arid humour; a liberal mix of satire, slapstick and some cringe-worthy punchlines.

Families which traditionally consumed tear-jerker serials switched camp and became its allies; it replaced tea-time conversations with friends, became fodder for meme nation, and a template forcomedy shows.

It gradually snowballed into a cult and understandably so, given how seriously it took the comedy business.

If you still havent figured out, it is Lollu Sabha or should we say LoL-lu Sabha Unlike today, there were no promos.

Lollu Sabha, like the movies I have made, rode primarily on word-of-mouth factor, says Rambala, creator and director of Lollu Sabha, who was instrumental in shaping the careers of actors Santhanam, Jeeva, Swaminathan and Yogi Babu among others.

Having worked as an assistant to directors Rama Narayanan and Bhagyaraj, Rambala landed the job of a script consultant, supervising Tamil content for Vijay TV, which was still under the wing of UTV group before it was formally acquired by the Star Group and rebranded as Star Vijay.

He pitched the idea of Lollu Sabha to the then programming head Pradeep Milroy Peter who gave the go-ahead signal, having been smitten by the concept.

Rambala was shouldering another show called Breakfast Show, which was divided into various segments dealing with multiple topics of which one of the segments had a two-minute slot called Lollu Sabha, a satirical take on cinema and politics.

Suresh Iyer head of the channel then motivated me to make that two-minute segment into a half-an-hour programme.

Thats how Lollu Sabha came into place, says Rambala, adding that he was given absolute freedom from the showrunners, Issues began to crop up much later.

Scripting a cult The format of the show was deceptively simple: a no-holds-barred spoof of iconic Tamil movies that pokes fun and takes potshots at every major star, irrespective of their size and status.

It was a cakewalk for Rambala since he was a habitual offender when it came to making jokes about anything and everything since his college days.

It would be pompous of me to say this but if you ask my friends, they would tell stories of how I used to make fun of people.

Lollu Sabha Pudhupettai