JOIN USIt’s 9.30 am on a Friday morning and a sleepy Danish Sait opens the door of his home. This just-woken-up guy in shorts and a tank top is nowhere similar to the guy I usually spot in comedy shows and hear on the radio. But 10 minutes later, a fresher-looking Danish is back, and so is his inherent sense of humour. “I just hope I don’t give away my bank details!” he exclaims.
Once he’s assured he’s not giving away any sensitive information, Danish slips into an easy conversation that travels from radio to Internet to films and back to radio again, much like his journey till date. Danish Sait is widely popular as a radio jockey who leaves the audience in splits with his hilarious pranks. Just like he assumes different avatars on the radio, he easily slips in and out of roles in his professional life, including that of a comedian, presenter and most recently, an actor.
Matching frequencies
Before Danish made radio his home, he could be found making announcements standing on floats, competing in music VJ hunts and being the guy who constantly keeps telling people to “swalpa TV volume kadime maadi” on music channels. But like every other aspiring artiste, Danish too came to a point when he realised he hadn’t done anything significant in his life. Soon followed radio stints in Bahrain and Dubai. He finally returned to Bengaluru where he set out to chart the path of fame with his radio pranks.
Why radio, I ask him. He thinks for a while, trying to justify the feeling radio gives him. Is it like a high? I prod him. “No, if it gives you a high, then you stay there for a while and then come down. This is like an addiction. You know there’s a normal state, a happy state, and then a state above that. I don’t know what to call it, but that’s where I would put radio. I was addicted to media and entertainment for a very long time. And when it comes to radio, I feel our frequencies matched,” he says.
However, it wasn’t all hunky-dory for him. “Initially, I did find radio challenging. I tried to be a particular type of funny. But when I realised that it wasn’t me, I decided to listen to my heart. If I listen to my brain, which has no creativity, it’s only going to be calculated bullshit. And when I dropped the pretence, the acceptance also became easier. Today, I can confidently go into any radio station in the world and turn the radio on and start afresh and no one will question my capabilities,” he explains.
Today, radio, a field that Danish calls home, is fighting a losing battle with Internet, social media and smartphones. Danish agrees, “The changing lifestyles of people have had a massive impact on this profession. Today, Internet is cool, Netflix is cool. Radio isn’t. Look at what smartphones have done to radio. I feel for radio, and I don’t want anything to happen to something that has given me so much. But the fact is that radio hasn’t grown at all when compared to other forms of entertainment,” he says.
But all is not lost with radio: after all, how often do you get to hear a movie being made on a character exclusively created for radio? Nograj, a twisted but adorable politician, is going to shine on the silver screen in a ‘not-so-humble’ manner in Humble Politician Nograj.
“Nograj has stepped out of the radio, into the Internet, and now into films. It’s lived a full journey like me. With prank calls, I realised I was successful in creating this vivid imagery of someone troubling a poor guy in people’s minds. Saad (Khan, the movie’s director) and I realised that we have an audience for it, and we have the creative ability to write a film on this concept. And if we write a film that has a good social message at the end of it, we could end up making a difference at a much bigger level,” explains Danish.
When things get serious
Comedy can be tricky sometimes. People get offended, arguments ensue, and the world gets divided. What then? “People take offence only on the Internet. In reality, a majority of them are good. My theory on this is that the Internet and the world we live in are completely different. Just look at my prank calls, they are so popular. Today, comedy shows will have at least 30-40 people. Doesn’t that tell you that people like humour?” he asks.
Nevertheless, this young comedian feels that the comedy scene today is not pure. Explain, I say. “I feel people will go to a comedy show because their favourite Internet person is there. But imagine somebody who doesn’t have an Internet presence. You still need to be someone, a star, in order for the crowd to actually come down and enjoy your show. People have to support the talent for it to grow,” he states.
Now that he’s earned a name for himself in two different entertainment mediums, what’s next? “A holiday!” he exclaims. On a serious note, he adds, “ Does it look like I have planned anything in life? I have just moved with the times. The only thing I believe is that you got to evolve with changing times. But I have always had a dream of working on animated content. I am a huge fan of series like Family Guy, and I want to write an entire series like that. But at the end of the day, all I want to be is a good human being. All these professional accomplishments and accolades don’t matter.”
With so much going on in his life currently, and with so much that has already happened, I can’t help but ask Danish if he’s happy. “Yes, very much! I have a great family and career. Tell me, how many people can boast of having the opportunity to debut in a movie written by themselves? I think I might be joining the likes of Kamaal R Khan!” he laughs.