Comedian Selvy

From left; Selvy, Comedian Janet and Comedian Augustinho in May 2015

Selvy always had an immense love of, and keen interest in, the Konkani stage. He began acting at the age of 8 in his elder brother, Saúde Correia's tiatrs and village folk plays. Selvy was also active in traditional Carnival folk plays (Konkani: Zomnivhele khell) before becoming a full-time professional tiatrist. He was first discovered by Tony Park who noted his skills in comedy and cast him for his non-stop tiatr.[8] Selvy had previously worked in the water resources department of the Goa Government before getting his big break at age 24 in 1998 as a professional comedian in John D'Silva's tiatr "Vatt" (Way).[3]

Selvy performing in "Strike" tiatr in February 2016

During his career span of 40 years as a Konkani actor, Selvy has acted in more than 60 tiatrs and was cast by prominent Konkani directors such as John D'Silva (14–15 tiatrs), Agostinho Themudo[10][11][12] (23 tiatrs) from 2007 to 2019, beginning from the tiatr "Sir" to signing off in "Pai" (Father)[8][13][14] and Roseferns (20 tiatrs)[15][4] in the late 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.[3] He was also cast by other notable Goan Tiatr directors like Mario Menezes,[16] Comedian Sally,[17] C'D Silva, Pascoal Rodrigues and Milagres de Chandor. Joyel Fernandes, popularly known as Comedian Joyel, an emerging Konkani comedian from Maina-Curtorim also recalls that Selvy was his inspiration[18] to take up the comedy genre.[8][19][20][21][22]

Selvy was also featured in more than 200 VCDs. He produced 5 of them namely, "Bekar Louddi", "Second Hand", "Garbage" and "Wrong Number".[8] He was also known for his singing skills,[23] and has sung in about 25 CDs.[8] After attaining much success in his Tiatr career, Selvy went on a global tour with his troupe in places like United Kingdom, Paris, The Middle East[24] to perform for his audience.[8][25]

Selvy eventually started writing, producing and directing his own tiatrs. "Raza Jeita Kombo Choita" and "8 Dis" (8 Days)[26] remain his only and most popular productions till date, which resulted in a tremendous positive response from the Goan diaspora in the United Kingdom.[3] The latter also crossed the silver jubilee mark prior to his death and was on the way towards the golden jubilee with a scheduled show in London in late July.[8]

Selvy was also known for his role of Mad Man in the 2018 movie, Welcome M1LL10NS. He is also seen acting in his last Konkani film, "Rong" (Colour) directed by Aggi Rod and produced by Joywin Fernandes, which was posthumously released on YouTube on 24 August 2022.[27]

The Chief Minister of Goa, Pramod Sawant and several other political leaders gave their condolences to the bereaved family.[38][39]

Selvy's funeral was held on 27 July 2022 at St. Francis Xavier Church, Velim.[40][41] It was attended by tens of thousands of Goans, including his family, friends, tiatr fraternity and political leaders.[5] He was later laid to rest at St. Francis Xavier Church cemetery in Velim.