Vir Das’s recent International Emmy win must feel like a vindication for the trolling he faced after performing the monologue Two Indias in Washington DC in 2021. Das’s takedown of Indian hypocrisy and governance on American soil even triggered police complaints back home, including by some from Bharatiya Janata Party members.
“On the night I was called a terrorist in my home country, I was nominated for an Emmy award,” Das mentions in his latest Netflix show Landing, referring to his nomination for the special For India. On November 20, Landing won Das the International Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series, shared with season three of Derry Girls. While Das’s social media was bombarded with “anti-national” slurs in 2021, his Instagram post about the Emmy honour is drawing the opposite response. One user wrote, “You are a true patriot sir.”
An International Emmy was on the comedian’s list of goals only as much as “a cappuccino and lunch”, Das joked. “I don’t look at life in that macro manner,” Das told Scroll. “I write a joke and only think of how I can make it better. I don’t look up, I look down at the baby steps and get lost in it.”
The day after the International Emmys ceremony in New York City, Das was back in India, performing to a packed auditorium in Panchkula. “I have a job to do, which is to make these people laugh,” Das said. “I view it as a blessing that I don’t have the time to think about legacy.”
Das was one of the earliest movers in the Indian standup comedy scene. The 44-year-old comedian became a household name in the late 2000s as a television host. When the Indian standup scene blew up over the next few years, Das moved up quickly, becoming the first Indian to have a Netflix special.
Alongside comedy, his profile was boosted by his roles in such films as Delhi Belly (2011) and Go Goa Gone (2013). “Nobody expected Delhi Belly or Go Goa Gone to become such cult hits,” Das observed. “Those films happened to me maybe because I was accustomed to doing different things. I have always tried to be offbeat. An Emmy win is the most mainstream thing that has ever happened to me.”
Das’s journey continues to be smoothened by appearances in big-budget Bollywood productions such as Shivaay and the popular talk show Koffee With Karan. He has also performed on the widely watched American show Conan. In 2020, Das starred in the Netflix series Hasmukh – which he co-wrote – as a small-town comedian who commits murder before each show to overcome stage fright.
Although Hasmukh drew mixed reviews, Das will continue to pursue films and shows. His upcoming projects include an Indian action film, an American comedy, two Indian series, and an American series.
“For a film role to entice me, which will take up four months of my life, it has to be very different and challenging from what I do as a standup comic,” Das said. “When a film won’t work, of course, you will be gutted, but it still becomes a part of your repertoire and you make some progress as an artist.”
After 16 years and thousands of performances, Das still gets a high generating laughs. “I am not funny in real life,” he said. “I am a serious, quiet, introverted, gigantic bore for most of the day. Only two hours, the smallest part of my day, I have to be funny when I am performing. And for my job, I get to travel to great places, find love and applause. The job of a banker or an engineer is infinitely harder.”
Das cited Ten on Ten, which was released on YouTube during the pandemic-induced lockdown of 2020-21. “It was just me and 30-40 people in a forest,” he said. “I am not on an elevated stage. There is no glamour. You cannot help but be yourself, be very real, and be able to get laughs.”
Das’s average day begins early, and in isolation. “I wake up at seven am, I do around two hours of undisturbed writing after that, without checking my phone or talking to anybody,” he revealed. “I move directly from a dream state to a writing stage, no matter what I am writing: a screenplay, jokes, or music.” The rest of the day comprises meetings, an afternoon nap, and performances.
Solitude is important for a comedian, Das added. “As a touring comedian, you have to be with yourself all alone in airports and hotels in different cities all the time,” he observed. “So you need to like solitude. But you cannot go overboard with it. You will need to balance it with all the people you will need to work with or perform in front of.”
The stereotype of a neurotic. self-loathing comedian, popularised by shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm or Louie, is not true, Das asserted: “The best comedians are calm and stoic. They get to sit and observe the world from a corner without involving themselves.”
It’s equally important to be thick-skinned, to pre-empt criticism by turning the joke on yourself. “Comedians are sensitive but we are insensitive to ourselves,” Das said. “We are products of rejection by the popular kids. We make fun of ourselves before everybody else can.”
In Landing, Das declares that if there is a world “where I don’t get to touch a microphone, I have zero interest in that world”. What if comedians became extinct one day?
“Then I wouldn’t have to worry about being a comedian because humanity without laughter wouldn’t survive very long,” Das said.