There are no middlemen between me and my audience: Vir Das

PTI, Sep 22, 2024, 2:17 PM IST

New Delhi: “If it’s crazy, I will do it,” says actor-comedian Vir Das about the kind of stories he wants to be associated with at this point in his career.

He is all set to host the International Emmy Awards in November, a year after he won the trophy for his comedy special “Landing”.

Das has also received good reviews for his role of firebrand news anchor Satyajit Sen in “Call Me Bae”, headlined by Ananya Panday.

“It has got to be fun. If it’s crazy, I will do it,” Das said about his criteria for choosing stories, irrespective of the platform.

“The way I look at it (my career) is that we’ve spent many years building the engine of a car or paid the EMI and now it’s time to take it for a drive. I’m blessed that there are no middlemen between me and my audience. I can access them directly and they’ll show up,” he told PTI in an interview.

The plan, he said, is to be associated with projects where he can add value or be at the creative helm.

“For instance, my next project is mounted by Aamir Khan and I co-directed it. That’s kind of, I think, the next thing, to start creating my own projects, acting wise as well,” said the actor, who started out with films such as “Delhi Belly”, “Go Goa Gone”, “Mastizaade” and “Shaadi Ke Side Effects”.

The comedy scene in cinema has also evolved over the years, Das said, recalling how there was no concept of a comedic leading man in India unlike the West, which has had the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller or Ricky Gervais.

“With each passing year, we are opening up to the idea of a comedic leading man instead of a leading man doing comedy,” he said.

In “Call Me Bae”, Das — whose stand-up specials like “Two-Indias” became a hit for the way he took on issues plaguing the country and its democracy — got to play the kind of news anchor he has criticised in his stand-up acts.

Asked whether he had a personal note about the way he wanted the character to appear on screen, the actor said he didn’t want to play Satyajit Sen like a villain.

“A funny person is a funny person, no matter what the ideology is. I didn’t play him like a villain. I just played him like he believed what he believed and he has a very interesting relationship with privilege.

“He’s a very conflicted character in the sense that he resents privilege, but he also desires privilege deeply. That’s the core of the character. I just tried to play it as straight as I possibly could,” he added.

Das said “Call Me Bae”, which is already developing a second season, was an “interesting meeting of minds” because he is not the first person when people think about Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment which has backed the series.

“When I was starting out in my career, I worked at CNBC (business news channel) and did a show called ‘News on the Loose’. I have been around journalists and I’ve been around a news flow and know the atmosphere really well,” the actor said, explaining why the role felt within his comfort zone.

Collin D’Cunha, the show’s director, and Das agreed early on that his news anchor would be good at his job.

“In terms of his delivery, he’s a good anchor. That’s the reason his show is the number one show. Any journalist today, whether you agree or not with what they have to say, you cannot deny that their delivery is good. So we were like, ‘Let’s make him really, really good in front of the camera’ and then let’s make him a fool in the office,” he added.

D’Cunha wanted him to stay away from the rest of the cast “so that they would react freshly” to what the actor had to say, Das recalled.

“There was a lot of improvisation and a lot of crazy behaviour. So a lot of the reactions that you see from the rest of the cast are very honest.”