Raju Srivastava was born on 25 December 1963, in Kanpur, India.[2] His father Ramesh Chandra Srivastava, known as Balai Kaka, was a poet from Kanpur. Srivastava pursued the dream of becoming a comedian since childhood. In his school time, he used to imitate his teachers.[3] He landed in Mumbai where he did small roles in a number of movies. During his struggling days, he used to mimic Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan