When we call him, Vir Das is “chilling in his pajamas” at home, from where he has announced a line-up of stand-up acts, like The Bright Side, which offers hope that things will get better. He talks to THE WEEK about how the lockdown has impacted him, about his character from his latest fiction show on Netflix, Hasmukh, and why he takes up so many diverse projects.
Q/ How have you been holding up during the lockdown?
A\ It has been a welcome sort of pause in my life. [Especially] for somebody who has been travelling for eight months a year for over a decade. It is nice to be home for an extended period of time. I have had a decade of output, and not any input. I am trying to consume as many books and movies as I can…. I am also taking this time to get my health in order because if you are travelling for eight months of the year, you are eating at all the wrong hours and are always jet-lagged.
Q/ Tell us more about your show, Hasmukh.
We worked on Hasmukh for almost three-and-a-half years. I approached Nikkhil Advani with the idea three years ago. I had written a basic pilot and I wanted him to direct it. We also co-produced it. He decided to make it a lot darker. But it is something that I have always wanted to do.
Q/ You character in the show seems to be very different from what you have done earlier. Was that challenging?
A\ You know I think I am a newer actor. I have not done too many movies or acted a lot in front of the camera. Everyone else in the show has got more experience than I have, whether it is Manoj Pahwa, Ranvir Shorey or anyone else. There were a few workshops and a dialect coach, with whom I worked for a month. Then, I had Atul (Mongia, casting director), who is very strict. [Although my character] Hasmukh is portrayed as from Saharanpur, he was adopted in Bihar, so he has a half here, half there kind of dialect. I was also in the writer’s room for two years.
Q/ Weirdass Comedy, your production house, did a few audio shows for Audible and the travel comedy, Jestination Unknown. And now you are out with a fiction series. Do you consciously refuse to get pigeon-holed as a producer?
A\ I think so. I had these ideas for many years; only, there were no platforms. Until five years ago, Farhan Akhtar was the only multi-hyphenated person we had. And then these platforms came and really helped with everything. For me, it is also so that I do not get bored and can be creative.