Krushna Abhishek | He is known for his comic timing, one liners and his dance moves. Musba Hashmi chats up Abhishek about the latest season of OMG! Yeh Mera India, which will go on air on March 29 on History TV-18, experience of hosting all the seasons of the show and how he wasn’t offered work after the failure of his first film
What does OMG! Yeh Mera India Season 7 has in store for the audience?
The first time when I signed the show as a host, my job was to give anchor links and voice overs and we used to shoot in the studio itself and it was my suggestion to History TV that we should travel places to bring in that reality. The stories are such that being an anchor, I too get shocked after getting to know the stories. One of the interesting story that we have this time is of houses made of paper. While giving the anchor link for the story, I asked my director how is it possible and told him that it made me go OMG! where did you get the story from?
So, the name of the show is apt considering the type of stories that we tell. All these stories excite me and my audience, of course. The audience will definitely get to see more such stories and the interest quotient will remain. Having said that, I would like to say no one season can be compared to another. All the seasons are unique in their own way. This will be one of the most exciting season and will go on air from March 29, 2021 at 8 pm on History TV-18.
You have been associated with the show for all the seasons. How does it feel?
I will continue to do this show till its last season. I love the show. If you see, we have the one and only successful comedy show — The Kapil Sharma Show. We enjoy doing it so much that we keep on laughing during the sets as well. That show has a different reach and OMG has a completely different reach. I meet some people, from the corporate sector, who doesn’t watch comedy shows, but they come and tell me that they watch the show and love it. Therefore, it is my most favourite show and I do it with all my heart.
Do you improvise while shooting?
On this channel, I have to go by what the script says. But yes, at some points I can improvise, but where we talk about facts and history, I have to be perfect. There’s no scope for even a slight error. So I have to do these anchor links with a lot of concentration and responsibility. I can’t give out wrong information. Therefore, here we have to do some extra hard work and mug up all the information before the shoot begins.
What does comedy mean to you?
First of all, one has to be mastikhor (fun) to do comedy. Like Kapil says, ‘Krushna bohot mastikhor hai, iski aankhon mein masti hai’ (Krushna is a fun person). So this is an inborn quality. You can’t learn to do comedy, it comes naturally. Comedy is a stress buster for me. It has become a habit now that we don’t take stress at all. Instead of banging our heads on the wall out of stress, we just take to dark humour and let it all out. One thing that I would like to mention is that people don’t come and tell us that they are our fan, instead they say that they watch TV because of us. This feeling is indescribable. So comedy has rewarded us with this respect. Hence, it means everything to me.
Have you become more careful while doing comedy, given that people get offended easily?
Definitely, we are extremely careful and we always have been. We don’t do any double meaing talks on The Kapil Sharma Show. We take care of so many things, we avoid doing comedy that involves God or that uses a politician’s reference. Nahin to aaj kal to log dharna hi lekar aa jayein, mere ko to ghabrahat hi ho jayegi (otherwise people will call for a protest and I will be scared).
From Yeh Kaisi Mohabbat Hai (2002) to now, how has the journey been for you?
I started with that film. It was a big flop and people didn’t give me work after that. Then I started doing small regional films. In 2007, I entered TV with Nach Bachliye. I did it with Kashmira. Then in 2008, I was offered Comedy Circus. I thought that it was a reality show and I can earn about Rs 20 lakh in five-10 episodes so why not. I did it for money and I never thought that it would become so popular. Comedy was never on my cards, though it was inside me, it just happened. I was a dancer and that’s what I try to do now also. Kapil and Sudesh ji were my mentors, they introduced me to stand up comedy. And gradually things started to fall in place and now I am here.