Comic Relief

Brought up in Delhi,Das studied at Delhi Public School and at Delhi University’s Sri Venkateshwara College before he took off to the US to study theatre. Booed off stage 14 times in south Chicago’s tough comedy clubs,he finally got a laugh the 15th time,after ranting that Americans would be “sexless and sterile” without Indians.

Ever since,Das has flirted with Bollywood,making his presence felt in movies such as Delhi Belly and Go Goa Gone. He has also written the script for an untitled film,to be directed by Nikhil Advani. “I don’t get too much sleep. I try and divide my time for stand-up and films,with four months a year devoted to the former and eight months to the latter,” says Das,whose next film Supar se Upar is set to release in October. His other projects include Santa Banta,where he plays the lead along with Boman Irani; Amit Sahni ki List,a romcom about a person with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Revolver Rani with Kangna Ranaut; and Golu Pappu,a film for children.

As for the material for his comedy,anything that makes the news become part of his act because “trending topics make for good comedy”. “But the question is,how much can I include? If I talk about everything that happened just last week,my act becomes too long and the audience gets fidgety. The big thing I’ve used this year is the battle for Prime Minister between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. I’ve never received backlash for using politics even when politicians have been part of my audience,” he says.

Unabashedly,Das says he sourced most of his material from CBSE textbooks and Khushwant Singh’s writings. He admits to using creative license for his content as it’s not completely “factually correct”.

Das,who has created a benchmark for comedy in the country,performed a new show called “Battle of Da Sexes” in Mumbai on September 7. In the act,he gives his take on men and women. “The show is about early man,communication,business,language,sex,religion and literature as seen from both sides. I’ve used a lot of statistics to supplement my material. There’s a lot of number crunching — what crimes men/women commit the most? How many men/women are in prison across the world?” he says.

But when it comes to choosing

between the world of cinema and stand-up comedy,Das chooses the latter. “I may have three audiences — for stand-up,films and music (his band,Alien Chutney) — but stand-up will always be my first love,” he signs off.