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Kiku Sharda dismisses claims that Great Indian Kapil Show’s content is repetitive: ‘On Netflix, we experimented like never before’

Amid claims that content on The Great Indian Kapil Show is repetitive, Kiku Sharda defended the Netflix show and explained why the comedy show moved its home to the OTT platform.

Kiku Sharda on The Great Indian Kapil ShowKiku Sharda on The Great Indian Kapil Show (Photos: Kiku Sharda / Instagram)

Comedian Kiku Sharda has been an integral part of the Kapil Sharma Show, right from the time it first appeared on TV. Having an 11-year-long association, the comedy reality show has gotten him immense popularity. Kapil Sharma and his team – Kiku Sharda, Krushna Abhishek, Rajiv Thakur, Sunil Grover, and Archana Puran Singh — made Netflix India their home with The Great Indian Kapil Show‘s OTT version, whose second season went live on Saturday. With that, Kiku also spoke with Indianexpress.com about his journey, and how life has changed after working with Kapil Sharma, and also addressed remarks of the OTT version looking like a caricature of the TV one.

Also Read: Kiku Sharda says Kapil Sharma has been running a successful show for 10 years, takes a backseat when others perform: ‘Shows wrap up because of ego battles’

Sharing if working on the OTT version was different from TV, Kiku Sharda tapped into several aspects from reach to the number of episodes. He said, “Earlier there was not much reach, when we went to the US people would tell us that they saw a few episodes here and there. They would find ways to watch it on the channel, but Netflix streams in so many countries, so the reach is wider. We enjoyed the first season, and the second season is even bigger. The hard work is the same, earlier we were a bi-weekly show, and now only one episode comes a week, since there are fewer episodes to deliver, it is a little relaxed. But the efforts that go behind the details are the same. If we get more time, we work even harder.”

Kiku has been around for 21 years in the industry, he made his debut with the fantasy drama, Hatim. Later, he went on the explore stand-up comedy which was booming on Indian TV back then. Having participated in The Great Indian Comedy Show, Kiku was seen dressing in drag for an audience that was not very accepting. So when asked if he had any apprehensions about doing so, the comedian said, “I never had any apprehensions about dressing up as a woman, I have done this from The Great Indian Comedy Show days. I am an actor so I should be able to deliver everything that comes my way. As far as I make it entertaining, it’s fine. Whenever I play a woman character, I make sure it is very dignified and enduring, it stays in the cute zone only. If I dressed up as a woman and the audience didn’t accept it, then I wouldn’t have continued, but it has been done well. I can go to any extent for my craft.”

Kiku Sharda also revisited his journey and shared some cherished professional memories, one of which was being a part of Irrfan Khan’s last film Angrezi Medium. “A film close to my heart would be Angrezi Medium, I got to work with Irrfan Khan sir, and I think it was his last film. Apart from that, on TV, I have done a lot of work, everyone knows my journey with Kapil, I did a show called FIR which ran for 7-8 years. I was very excited to do this show called Akbar Birbal because it was not about the Akbar you knew, but about him having usual issues back home. I liked that idea. My first show Hatim was very exciting for me because it was in a fantasy space,” he said.

Kiku also spoke about how his life changed after associating with Kapil Sharma. He shared, “Kapil has been a different high. It has been 11 years that I have been doing the show, but working with Kapil has helped me learn so much, and grow so much. It has helped me become the person I am today.”

When The Great Indian Kapil Show streamed on Netflix a certain section of the audience felt that Kapil had nothing new to offer, but the same old style of comedy with minor variations. As a result of which, the show was also called repetitive to an extent. Defending this claim, Kiku explained, “I never came across feedback like that because the amount of new things we did on Netflix and the OTT version was a lot. If you see our older episodes, you will see the same characters in 20 episodes, but here we experimented like never before, so I don’t think we were repetitive.”

Don’t miss: Archana Puran Singh says other Great Indian Kapil Show cast members earn double of what she gets: ‘I’m paid to laugh’

Talking about the feedback the team has received, the comedian shared, “All the episodes we did in the last season, a lot of them were unusual, especially the spoofs. In the new season, you will see various new things, in one of the episodes, I have played a djinn, so a lot of new stuff is happening.”

The Great Indian Kapil Show Season 2 began on Saturday with Alia Bhatt, Karan Johar, and Vedang Raina as the first guest.

Nawaz Kochra is an enthusiastic entertainment journalistic for the last 9 years, he has been a known face and successfully worked with some big publications. At IndianExpress.com, Nawaz majorly covers TV and OTT and also does video interviews. Having the best conversations with celebrities is what Nawaz loves. ... Read More

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  • Kapil Sharma Kiku Sharda The Great Indian Kapil Show
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