Runkumar Natarajan as ‘Annachi’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Ramkumar Natarajan has moved six companies in his 16 years in the IT industry. He once put in his papers in a company, officially citing “lack of any good Andhra mess near his office” as the reason.
He misses his IT days a bit – Ramkumar is now a full-time stand-up comedian – but he has no regrets.
In this upcoming show he will be seen as ‘Annachi’, a character he designed during the lockdown days. For Annachi, ‘Annachi’ – dressed in a crisp white shirt and speaking in Nellai Tamil dialect – is a hit fictional character who mostly talks about IT-related aspects, in a humorous manner.
So, how was ‘Annachi’ born? “One of my video sketches explored a concept: what if a food blogger went to review a petrol bunk? While doing so, we featured a petrol bunk owner character, for which I acted as ‘Annachi’ from Tirunelveli , because that’s where I come from. That character and his kind struck a chord with the Tamil audience.
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He followed that sketch with another video on the same topic – what if ‘Annaachi’ was an IT manager – and later decided to expand that idea as a short video concept for 15 weeks. Manager Annachi’s humorous thoughts on escalation, moonlighting, and status updates attracted many IT employees, some of which became viral hits.
Today, ‘Annachi’ has released over 70 one-minute videos/reels and has its own fan base. In its upcoming show, ‘Annachi’ will take to the stage to use power-point presentation and graphics to bring out the humor related to IT. He laughs, “Nowadays people remember ‘Annachi’ more than Ramkumar.”
Ramkumar Natarajan | Photo credit: Johan Satyadas
The character may be his identity now, but Ramkumar dabbled in humor and public speaking since his school days in Tirunelveli. “I spent more days participating in Tamil elocution competitions than at school,” he says. This passion took a back seat when he entered the IT industry, where he was surrounded by tasks related to coding and programming. A stage appearance at one of his workplaces rekindled his interest in public speaking, and soon, Ramkumar became the go-to person for entertaining audiences at corporate events. “Instead of hiring a stand-up comedian from elsewhere, they started using me for free. He was sure I would entertain him for about 15 minutes, especially with office humour,” says Ramkumar, who later participated in several stand-up open mic events honing his craft and one-liners. Did.
Having immersed himself in the stand-up scene full-time, he doesn’t have a place to go anymore, but Ramkumar has an exciting line-up. With more comedy content and shows coming up in Chennai, Madurai and Singapore, he also wants to appeal to a wider audience. Living in a gated community home to a cross-section of people provides much humorous material, as do those still in touch with their IT colleagues. “I’m still on several WhatsApp groups, and their everyday conversations about IT life keep me content,” he says.
Catch Ramkumar husband Annachi Medhi on May 14 (3.15 PM and 5.15 PM). For tickets log on to rcomic.in/shows/.