New Delhi, July 26 : Actor Chunky Pandey is loving this phase of his career. He says his recent, light-hearted roles have given him a chance to connect with young audience members, a joy he missed in the initial years of his career.

He has played comic roles like Rana Jang Bahadur in 2006 film "Apna Sapna Money Money" and was recently seen playing the character of Aakhri Pasta in Sajid Khan's "Houseful" series.

"Somehow most of my fans are little children and I love that. When I started my career, I missed out on that generation completely. I went off to Bangladesh, there were little children who used to ask me who I am, and I used to tell them to go and ask their mother who would know me and my films," Chunky told IANS.

"Now it is the little kids who ask for me and I love it. Now children also watch my movies and I perform for them. I am happy that I have that league of kid fans," he added.

The 47-year-old, who earlier featured in films like " Paap Ki Duniya" (1988) and " Aankhen" (1992), is currently judging a standup comedy show "Laugh India Laugh" on Life OK.

While many believe making people laugh is a tough deal, Chunky feels otherwise, and says standup comedy is way tougher.

"I think it's a very easy thing to make people laugh, especially with a script and then you've just got to dress up. That's also the idea of comedy in Bollywood.

"But in standup comedy, there's a man, with just some content, trying to make everyone laugh. I can't even do for one minute, what these people do for 10 minutes! I see a lot of Raju Srivastavas and Johnny Levers coming up," he said.

What's Chunky's definition of a good comedian?

"I think the first and the most important thing is to look funny. I think you should be able to punctuate things very well, should be able to make people laugh.

"If in the first 30 seconds, a comedian cannot bring a smile to your face, he is not an entertainer," he said.

The actor is busy with his first production venture, a fiction show in Los Angeles. He is also excited about playing another comic character of 3G in "Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum", which hits theatres Friday.

© IANS