With several successful comedy shows and a Filmfare nomination in his kitty, stand-up comedian and actor Vir Das knows how to make the audience laugh.
“So the history of India is divided into four major phases. You had the Mughals, the Marathas, followed by the Cholas and then you could have the...bhaturas?” announces Vir Das in his recent comedy show, History of India-VIRritten. He goes on to talk about the eatables complementing the bhatura — the green chutney, followed by the ras malai and the jalebi. “Not the small jalebis that you get in Sindhi weddings, but the arrogant ones at Punjabi weddings,” he adds tongue-in-cheek. History of India, produced by Ashvin Gidwani, was performed before a packed audience at Siri Fort Auditorium last week. Stand-up comedian and actor, 32-year old Das took the stage for 90 minutes. “I spent more than a year scripting the show,” he says. His reading material included Khushwant Sinha’s India: An Introduction. As he narrated historical events — from the formation of the Harappa civilisation, the advent of the Mughal era to liberalisation in 1991 — no one could have guessed that he had just returned from a 20-hour film shoot in Ghaziabad. Reaching the venue an hour before his performance, he hid backstage, gauging the crowd. “I decide beforehand whom to look at and direct all my jokes — the rich, the old or the short-tempered,” he says. Apologising profusely for not answering calls or responding to texts, Das adds, “I was busy chasing villains on set all day.” He is currently working in an action film, the name of which he cannot divulge.
Born in Dehradun, Das has lived in Africa, Shimla and Delhi. After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Theatre from Knox College in the US, he went on to study method acting at Harvard University, after being accepted for its Stanislavsky Programme in coalition with the Moscow Arts Theatre. So why did he decide to take up stand-up comedy? “I wanted to try out something more organic... so I would hit the amateur nights in America and try to make Americans laugh,” he says. “But the Americans could never pronounce my name right. They called me Weird Ass,” he adds straight-faced. That also became the name of his company back in India.
Weirdass Comedy is a team of nine established stand-up comedians such as Kavi Shastri, Rohan Joshi and Das himself with 200 amateur comedians. “We perform around eight shows a month and hold amateur nights to scout for new talent,” says Das. Though he refuses to give names, his company “comedy consults” and receives several film scripts that need some tweaking. Weirdass Comedy has also been scripting the Filmfare Awards for the last three years. Das recently wrote the script for the 57th Filmfare Awards, hosted by Ranbir Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan. Incidentally, Das was nominated in the Supporting Actor category for his role in 2011 hit Delhi Belly, but lost out to Farhan Akhtar for Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. “I am a funny guy and an okay actor,” he believes.
After hosting various comedy shows across channels such as News on the Loose on CNBC-TV18 and Now Not Showing on CNN-IBN, Das decided to venture into films. “I was waiting for the right scripts, so I would only take up small roles initially,” he reasons. Though his performances in movies like Mumbai Salsa (2007) and Namastey London (2007) went unnoticed, his portrayal of Arup in Delhi Belly — a frustrated man bogged down by personal and professional issues — was critically acclaimed. “I auditioned for the role nine times... by the end of it all, I knew the guy (Arup)!”
While his previous stand-up show, Gidwani’s Walking on Broken Das — an irreverent take on everything from gender biases to sex education in India — contained more “filthy material”, Das has lowered the entry age for History of India from 18 to 16 years. “Parents were sneaking in their younger kids...the show is a laugh riot for anyone between 16 and 80 years,” he adds. When asked about his recent weight loss, Das retorts, “With all these heroines around me, I’ve decided to stay in shape!” Das can be seen flirting with actor Deepika Padukone, though unsuccessfully, in the recent Nescafe advertisements. “Everyone on the sets, be it Karan (Johar), Deepika or Purab(Kohli) treated me like an adopted puppy with lots of energy,” jokes Das.
