Gearing up for his tour after Two Indias controversy, Vir says he goes by instinct as he can’t predict audience reaction
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At the start of our chat, Vir Das tells us an observation he has made—as he is getting older, his audience is getting younger. “It’s weird to know that 70 per cent of my audience is between 18 and 25 years of age,” he states. The stand-up comic is happy to cater to this demographic as he kicks off his next world tour, Mindfool, this month. Das, who will take his shows across 33 countries, says the idea is to remain relevant with the young bunch. “Staying authentic is most important. The younger generation has a knack for smelling inauthenticity from a mile away. Stardom is being redefined. Big stars are also re-evaluating what they stand for,” he says.
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But authenticity sometimes comes at a price. In 2021, Das’s Two Indias monologue sparked furore in certain sections of the population. In his last Netflix special, Landing (2022), the comic discussed the sheer horror of its aftermath, revealing that he had to switch his phone off for two months. Have people, whom he jokes about, ever asked him to tone it down? “No, powerful people only call other powerful people,” he grins. “I have found my people, and I am conscious to not disappoint them. I am mindful that I have to give a good time to anyone who is spending Rs 3,000 on my show. And then, there are those who come with the mindset that I won’t disappoint. I want to deliver a set that’s real. After [the controversy], I realised what it means to be an artiste—take something that happened via a certain group of people and make it into art that will cater to every group of people. Whichever side you were on during that controversy, you should be able to laugh at jokes about it today.”
Being fearful about a possible backlash is detrimental to the art. Das says, “Self-censorship won’t help because this is a country of 1.4 billion people. You can never predict what will get a reaction. It’s about trusting your instinct and putting your best material out there.”
In the recent past, comedians in India have faced backlash or severe resistance. Do desis have a low threshold for sharp humour then? “Not at all, we’re the largest English-speaking audience in the world. We have a wonderful sense of humour.”
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