It has just been a week since stand-up comedian and actor Vir Das won an Emmy for his Netflix special ‘Vir Das: Landing.' For Das, this victory has connotations at so many levels; most significantly, it helps him look the naysayers, the trolls and the Bhakts in the eye. "All's well that ends well," he tells THE WEEK, with an assertion that is characteristic of one who is comfortable in his own skin.
Vir has been around for almost two decades during which he joked, acted, hosted, anchored and in time became a target for massive trolling for his monologue, 'I come from Two Indias,' which revolved around his perception of two Indias - a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde India, the good and the bad, the irony and the hypocrisy. “The more volatile the milieu is the more the comedy. I have a simple rule: whatever the climate is, I am writing a joke about it. You will never find me complaining about it; you will never find me screaming about it. You will only find me joking about it," he tells THE WEEK.
Das didn't expect the Emmy until the last minute when he saw two envelopes on the jury table; he was actually there to cheer for Shefali Shah, who too, was a contender. Along with him, the other nominees included El Encargado from Argentina and the French show Le Flambeau season two. Das and Derry Girls getting the same amount of votes is "statistically a very rare thing that happened," says Das.
The way the Emmys work is such that there are six to seven regions across the world and thousands of submissions coming from every region which are then narrowed down by jurors who watch every piece of content from every region before casting a vote. That makes Das's victory even more remarkable given that the competition went beyond two or more actors, it was a contest of content — shows that have gained international repute and boast of millions in viewership.
Das can aptly be described as a rule-breaking comic, one who's impatiently waiting in line to bag a lasting place for himself in pop-culture lore. “My wife once said that I was born a generation early. She said, ‘The reason your shows are selling out right now is that you were born for this generation, but you were born the generation before it,’” says Das. “I hope that 20 years after I am dead, something will happen in the world and you can quote me about it, and that will be my job done.”
Das isn't the kind of person who'd walk with his chin up; rather, he'd prefer to walk with his head down, preferring to stay low, yet, be heard the farthest and loudest. Last year, THE WEEK had spoken to him when he was nominated for the Emmy. At the time, Das said he was contemplating what to wear on the red carpet. He knew nothing about fashion, so he offered a chance to a brand-new fashion designer to dress him up for it. The designer, Pradeep Bhat, was a third-year student at the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.
Post the Emmy, he has big plans with his comedy company, ‘Weirdass Comedy’ and wants to get back to acting, after having close to 20 films to his credit so far including Badmaash Company (2010), Delhi Belly (2011) Go Goa Gone (2013) among others. He also enjoys wearing many other hats. “Recently, I got to create a project, act in it, co-direct a few episodes and be a show-runner as well. I just didn’t know enough to do that earlier, but now with experience, some very interesting choices are in front of me.”
Das the interviewee is nothing like Das the comic. He is serious, introspective, thoughtful and self-deprecating. He reflects on why he did not taste much success as an actor, and the lessons he learnt from past failures such as Go Goa Gone and Mumbai Salsa. He is now looking at reinventing himself for the screen. But ask the comic, what happens when the jokes feel repetitive and unoriginal? His sharpest critics say he is an “unintelligent” comedian, but Das maintains that the “best thing one can call me is stupid”. “Nothing you say about me can be worse than the things I have said about myself on stage,” he says.
