Opinion Vir Das’s Emmy opens up space for Indian comedians globally

Speaking at the Indian Express Adda last month, Vir Das summarised the importance of his craft — stand-up comedy — in an era of “hurt sentiments” and keyboard outrage: “What I love about my art form is that we can fundamentally disagree about it and laugh about it at the same time.” Das won the International Emmy Award for Comedy for his Netflix special Landing on Monday. The recognition is bound to increase the space for comedians from India globally.

In a sense, you could say that this moment marks a Priyanka Chopra and Arundhati Roy moment for the comedy scene. Like the former, Das was successful in India, before branching out to Hollywood, and “making it” there. Like the latter’s Booker Prize, the Emmy could be a watershed moment for the sector as a whole. There is also the fact that Das, like a small proportion (but fairly large number) of Indians, belongs to the English-as-a-first language class that came of age post-liberalisation. He has an easy comfort with the American cultural touchstones, and how they played out in India. Significantly, he has also been a fairly political comedian, particularly with his 2021 monologue, “I Belong to Two Indias”.

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The only dark question that lines an otherwise silver cloud is this: Will the lure of global recognition limit authenticity and creativity — the ephemeral essentials for great stand-up comedy — for Indian Vir Das wannabes? Das began his career at a time when people could laugh about their disagreements much more easily, without fear of trolls, abuse and more dire consequences. Now, those who want to follow in his footsteps will have a much harder time, especially as stand-up moves from being an English-only, relatively upper-class art form. After all, too often and in too many places, there are no Emmys — only FIRs. It is, sadly, becoming more difficult to belong to Two Indias in India.