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

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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.”

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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.