Vir Das’ new show Unbelievablish is inspired by his own life experiences. He tells Karan Bhardwaj that censoring sex comedy is a futile exercise
Call him vulgar, edgy, obscene but don’t you dare call him ‘unintelligent’. At least, that’s one charge Vir Das would not like to be framed upon. His stand-ups have been about unadulterated humour but the comedian says he has always been ‘intelligent’ enough to use sex wisely in his scripts and not for the heck of it. Rejecting any sort of censorship in satire and humour, he tells us, “I have never adapted myself to any sort of censorship. If I’m using word ‘lesbian’ in my work or any sex vocabulary, you can rely on the fact that I’m doing something intelligent. That’s the reason why I have been okay so far. I’m not mouthing things just to sensationalise them on stage.” Having said that, he also adds that a comedian must apply his own moral conscience while cracking adult jokes. “We all can decide what’s in good or bad taste. I never joke around illness, disability or children. That could hurt people,” says the actor-comedian.
He fails to understand why ‘sex’ is still a taboo in our society. “If you want to get rid of sex humour, then you have to get rid of sex. And I do not think that’s possible. I think it’s impossible to censor comedy at a larger level. If you can try to shut it down on cinema, it will be shown on TV. If you ban it on TV, you will find it on Internet, in books and plays. So you cannot curb satire. It’s a futile exercise to control sex comedy,” he says.
Das, when not working, likes to spend time with wife and enjoy moment of silence and privacy. For that reason, he guarded his most precious moment by getting married secretly at a private beach in Sri lanka. “I’m not a social animal. I entertain average of 6,000 people every month. So whenever I get time, I just go off the radar. Shivani and I decided to celebrate the best moment of our life in a peaceful manner. So we went to Sri lanka, got out friends there and married. It was serene. I managed to get a private beach sans paparazzi which was not possible in India. There was no photographer and some 150 guests had switched off their phones. In absence of mobile phones, people were forced to talk to each other,” he shares with us.
Post wedding-break, Das is back to work with a bang. He is presently touring multiple cities as a part of his biggest show ever Unbelievablish (11 cities). He recently performed in the Capital. His show tracks his own journey, from doing variety of jobs to stand-up comedy, from losing people and relatives to finding love and getting married. “The trick of the show is that it is a mix of comedy and dishonesty. The audience has to figure out where I’m lying in the story. I am narrating 10-15 stories. Some of them are truth and some of them are lies and the audience has to catch me throughout the play. If I am caught, I will refund the ticket amount,” he says.
looking back, Das recalls how his life has been full of ups and downs. He first tried stand-up at a US bar where he was booed off. It was then when he decided to become a comedian. He paid from his own pocket to pay fees for his acting classes. He worked as a doorman, a dog walker and the person in charge of a bread aisle in a super market.
“Another turning point was Namaste london. I had just one dialogue in that whole movie. But it made me decide that I want to become an actor and can invest full-time into it. I cannot forget that scene with Rishi Kapoor,” he says adding that he had also thought of becoming a businessman-consultant like his father, if he failed to entertain people.
Besides Unbelievablish, his comedy-rock band Alien Chutney, that includes members Sidd Coutto, Gaurav Gupta, Warren Mendonsa and Kaizad Gherda, is actively producing music videos. Their album Bom in live Bay will have 13 tracks. “In this project, we are going to release one video every month for the next 12 months,” he tells us.