On November 20, Vir Das will be in New York hoping to win an International Emmy for his Netflix special Two Indias. The Telegaph caught up with the comedian, now on a purple patch, for a chat.
How was your recent show in Kolkata?
I had a full house. It is a very artistically exposed crowd. They listen to a ton of music, they read a ton of literature and poetry. A very nuanced crowd and a wider age group of people are coming out to stand-up shows in Kolkata.
And you are now eyeing an International Emmy win, with your second nomination in as many years. You are making a habit of it but it’s a good habit to have....
Is two times a habit as opposed to just dumb luck? (Laughs)
What was your first reaction when you heard about the nomination?
It was purely a manifestation thing. I may not have mentioned this in any other interview before, I am prepping for a movie and for that I wear a weighted vest and do about three hours of walking a day. My EA Akash, who produced the last Netflix special that we did called For India, was also nominated with me. He had framed his nomination and I hadn’t seen it before. And I was like: ‘That looks damn nice. Why don’t you frame mine?’ He said: ‘Go, get it for me.’
I walked to the cupboard, pulled out my international Emmy medal from two years ago. I walked back to Akash, handed it to him and started exercising again. And four minutes later, I was tagged in a new nomination! Some guys think that because they didn’t touch the remote, they made India win the cricket match. So may be because I was holding the medal in my hand....
Two Indias grabbed a lot of eyeballs but also came in for a fair bit of trolling and criticism, specifically from the right wing. Did this nomination feel like a personal victory of sorts?
The victory is that you are being able to talk, being able to act, being able to direct and being able to have an audience. That’s the victory. This is just a party. The first thing that I did was call up the people at Netflix and we had a phone call celebration.
The rest of it, I don’t think too much about it, to be very, very honest. I know that sounds like something people say in interviews, but if you go from that Emmy nomination, which is the first Emmy nomination, to then really expecting nothing in life to getting this, you don’t achieve it with any sense of entitlement. You just think it’s a blessing.
Is that your attitude towards everything you get in life? It has been a few very good years for you, from touring the world to international recognition to Hollywood acting projects....
In the last four-five years, I have found some sort of a purity of intention. The intention is that I want to get really, really good at this. I want to get the best at stand-up that I have ever been. If you get put on a platform like Netflix that goes to so many countries, it is a little humbling where you truly discover how global a voice can be and how much you lack or have to cover up in that area. That has really been the learning for me. Netflix happened, two world tours happened and I really got to see the world.
About four years ago, I sensed that there is an opportunity to be an authentically Indian global comedy voice, not just an Indian comedy voice. Now I just focus on that. Like, how can I get good at that? Anything else is quite honestly a distraction. I let that intention inform anything that I do. That’s the attitude. I want to get good, you know.
Two Indias came in for a lot of chatter. What do you remember most from the feedback that came in at that time?
It was just a more emotional feedback than I typically have. If you watch my three world specials, they definitely make you laugh. But I don’t really put myself out there too much as a comic. Two Indias was the first one where people came out and said: ‘I feel like I got to know you, I feel like we are friends.’
That is a little bit of growth that I am happy about because you discover that equation has far more longevity than fandom. Two Indias was challenging because we took away all the trappings of what it means to be a successful comedian. There was no set, it was just sand on the floor and not really a fancy venue and had minimal lighting. I was not coming to it from a place of success at all. In fact, it was perhaps my very lowest point when I was doing it.
What are your most lasting memories from the first International Emmy ceremony? Your outfit was designed by a fashion student. Is that something you will do this time also?
I am doing a big India tour right now in about 23 cities. In every city, I am launching a new designer. In fact, in every city we are launching a new singer-songwriter, a new designer and a new filmmaker.
In Kolkata, there was a guy called Vedant who was really passionate about the outfit that he had created, though the label wasn’t very well known. There is a singer-songwriter who was going to play for 2,000 people and a filmmaker who is making a movie about the entire thing. And I got to showcase all of their work.
I don’t really understand fashion at all, but I know that if someone else is passionate about it, it must be good. Pradeep Bhatt was a kid from Haldwani and studying in NIFT, Kangra, whose creation I wore to the last International Emmy ceremony. He is doing quite well now.
Apart from that, I just remember that the salad was good and I remember having to pee right before my category (was announced)!
Who will you wear this time?
It stresses me out to think about all this stuff. Even the local designers that we booked, we got something like 15,000 emails across the three genres. My team does all that stuff and and it is great because they don’t bloody understand fashion either!
It is just the blind leading the blind. I will wear something, I know that. Very much minimalist, right? In the most luxurious sense of the word, it is probably the most privileged minimalism you could find. But I still managed to tour a fair portion of the world without check-in luggage. With fashion, I couldn’t care less. The audience is coming for the jokes and for the heart. Ain’t nobody coming for the suit.
You recently said how film festivals should recognise stand-up comedy as an art form when it has actually been also recognised all over the world right now. There was another post where you said that major theatres and venues would not accommodate stand-up comedy acts and now you and your community are filling them up. What needs to be done to make this kind of an attitude change?
I believe that there should be a democracy for categories. At the International Emmy, I am nominated for Best Comedy, alongside Derry Girls which costs millions and millions of dollars per episode. But we are nominated together because we make you laugh.
And because at some level, we have made cinematic pieces. There is direction that went into Netflix’s Vir Das: Landing. It was shot by Jay Oza, who shot Gully Boy. An editor and I edited it on our laptops. There was lighting, a thought to it and a structure as well. It is much more than one guy just standing on stage and cracking jokes.
What would you pick as the most creatively satisfying aspects of your career over the last five years?
I think it is next year, to be honest. I am writing a special that I am hoping is one I will be remembered for. And I am directing my first movie that I will star in as well. Those are both ideas that I have had for about seven years. I am not a very retrospective kind of guy. You have spoken to me enough over the years to know that I don’t really look back at all.
What is happening on the international acting front?
I have two shows in development in the US. And then I have a sort of big action movie next year. In India, I just wrapped up two series that I acted in and then I will do this movie. So it’s going to be a heavy two-three years of acting.
Where do you get the time to do so much?!
It is very hard to be this exhausted. No one has paid me for 10 years. Now I am getting paid, so I have to work!
I am a Vir Das fan because... Tell t2@abp.in
