Standing up and getting noticed!

Humour Street

For those who just might not know him by name, he has been flexing his funny bone on innumerable stages and television.

 His is a face that launched a few unforgettable characters (a la Arup in Delhi Belly). Vir Das is funny. But there’s more to him.

 The digs on stage apart, on his visit to Deccan Herald recently, he spilt the beans on his latest film Amit Sahni Ki List. Jokes apart, comedy is serious business for him. But so is acting. So how is it being compared to Jay Leno? “That’s for Jay Leno to answer,” the stand-up comedian-cum-actor chuckles, not forgetting to add, “I’m just better looking than him!”

But he admits, “it’s a compliment to be compared to him.” 

The quintessential Vir Das — the surreal humour and the hats included — is now a full-fledged actor. In Amit Sahni Ki List, he plays an investment banker with a long list of requirements that he wants to see in his ideal woman. Vir had created a niche as a funny man before the acting career came calling. 

So how ‘suited’ is he for the role, considering his character also has a fetish for suits in this film? “Ironically, it has been like working in a company where you get a Diwali bonus and increment with every year you stick on. It started out with one scene, then five, then supporting roles and now I’m playing the lead.  It was the requirement for a comic leading man that made this script interesting. Usually, in romcom, there is more romance and less comedy. Here, I play a funny leading man,” he says. 

By his own admission, he doesn’t have to depend on his films to pay his dues. “I don’t have to depend on films for money (laughs). I can be selective,” he says. 

   Now, in the world of vanity vans and pampering, things are rosy. But he adds, “A film is six months of my life. So I look for anything that is different. And this is the beginning of lead roles.”

Was Delhi Belly hard labour? “It was suffering. I had to wake up at 5 am and they covered me in cement and what not! But here I got pampered, and it has a female producer,” he jokes. “I don’t want to be arrogant but I consider myself an artiste. In standup, you speak about 100 things in one hour. In films, you spend 100 hours for one film. I research and write all my acts. Since I write the script, I know it better. And I take at least three months before I present a standup act,” he adds.

So his story goes back to a couple of decades when realised his ability to make people laugh (“Since I was four, I was put on stage”). “I was good at debating, dramatics and everything else, except in the classroom (chuckles).” Well, it turns out, he had the looks and talent to also make it as an actor. 

   For the jet-setting actor, Bangalore is no alien territory. “I have never come here for long enough. I am always on the 12 pm landing and 6 pm departure flights. Two of my closest friends are from here,” he says. 

For the uninitiated, he has also crooned for Amit Sahni Ki List. “I’m a shower singer, now I am doing it on stage. Pyar is an anti-love song that Amit Sahni sings when he is about to jump off a plane. It’s an anti-love song and am wailing,” he is candid. A man who wears many hats, what more does he want? “Earn a lot,” he bursts out. Indeed, talk of giving many a run for the money!