<p> “I see no reason why the characters I do are the same or in any way similar to what I am either in real life or in my live acts,” smiles Vir Das, the handsome actor who was recently appreciated for his role as Chandu, the ‘filmi’ guy in Badmaash Company.<br /><br />“Chandu appealed to me because he was completely the opposite of my real-life self,” states Das. “He is a Roadside Romeo who is the son of a failed actor and dreams of working opposite Madhuri Dixit, since the film is set in the 90s.” Das’s other films till now include Vikram Bhatt’s Mumbai Salsa and his memorable cameo in Namastey London. He is now dubbing for Aamir Khan’s Delhi Belly. Das adds that he will take up a new film with Tanuja Chandra on his return from a tour of his shows later this year.<br /><br />“I think that I am doing reasonably well as a stand-up comedian, so I am really very choosy about what I do in cinema,” he says, smiling. “Like, if a single film like Badmaash Company needs six months from me, it means that I have to give up on 80 to 90 shows! Even among stand-up comedians in India, I have an unusual place — very few do English acts here. My two-hour solo act — ‘Working On Broken Das’ — produced by Ashwin Gidwani, has been very popular and was the first of its kind in Mumbai. I will now be taking it to different cities in India and also abroad between July and September.”<br />He describes his shows as a modern English version of the classic Hindi ‘Hasya Kavi Sammelan’ kind. “They have little in common with what we see on television of late. By the way, my name in USA is Weirdass, which is the way they pronounce Vir Das,” he says with a serious face.<br /><br />Das’s shows are what he calls “60 percent scripted and 40 percent improvised. Because the audience writes my show in every city and country,” he reveals. “I have been influenced by Ash Chandler, Cyrus Broacha, Boman Irani and the likes. So my humour avoids racist jokes or Laloo Prasad digs and I keep mimicry to the barest minimum.” <br />But there is a twist in his tale: Vir is a trained actor — his first goal in life — and has spent four and a half years in acting school. “I largely follow the Stanislavsky school of acting, which contrary to popular thought, is not just about method acting,” says the youngster. “It is a different thought-process and I would even say that every actor follows it unknowingly to a good extent. I prepared for Chandu for four months. After all, who wouldn’t want to be a part of a Yash Raj poster, especially when Adi (Aditya Chopra) approaches you?”<br /><br />And Badmaash Company also revealed a new side to Das, his workaholic nature. “We shot in Bangkok, New York, Las Vegas and Philadelphia. We would be up by 5 am and shoot till evening, and after that I would perform locally for three nights a week after 10.30 pm for 45 minutes. My co-stars Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Meiyang Chang would be among my audience too, all very impressed with me!” he laughs. <br /></p>
<p> “I see no reason why the characters I do are the same or in any way similar to what I am either in real life or in my live acts,” smiles Vir Das, the handsome actor who was recently appreciated for his role as Chandu, the ‘filmi’ guy in Badmaash Company.<br /><br />“Chandu appealed to me because he was completely the opposite of my real-life self,” states Das. “He is a Roadside Romeo who is the son of a failed actor and dreams of working opposite Madhuri Dixit, since the film is set in the 90s.” Das’s other films till now include Vikram Bhatt’s Mumbai Salsa and his memorable cameo in Namastey London. He is now dubbing for Aamir Khan’s Delhi Belly. Das adds that he will take up a new film with Tanuja Chandra on his return from a tour of his shows later this year.<br /><br />“I think that I am doing reasonably well as a stand-up comedian, so I am really very choosy about what I do in cinema,” he says, smiling. “Like, if a single film like Badmaash Company needs six months from me, it means that I have to give up on 80 to 90 shows! Even among stand-up comedians in India, I have an unusual place — very few do English acts here. My two-hour solo act — ‘Working On Broken Das’ — produced by Ashwin Gidwani, has been very popular and was the first of its kind in Mumbai. I will now be taking it to different cities in India and also abroad between July and September.”<br />He describes his shows as a modern English version of the classic Hindi ‘Hasya Kavi Sammelan’ kind. “They have little in common with what we see on television of late. By the way, my name in USA is Weirdass, which is the way they pronounce Vir Das,” he says with a serious face.<br /><br />Das’s shows are what he calls “60 percent scripted and 40 percent improvised. Because the audience writes my show in every city and country,” he reveals. “I have been influenced by Ash Chandler, Cyrus Broacha, Boman Irani and the likes. So my humour avoids racist jokes or Laloo Prasad digs and I keep mimicry to the barest minimum.” <br />But there is a twist in his tale: Vir is a trained actor — his first goal in life — and has spent four and a half years in acting school. “I largely follow the Stanislavsky school of acting, which contrary to popular thought, is not just about method acting,” says the youngster. “It is a different thought-process and I would even say that every actor follows it unknowingly to a good extent. I prepared for Chandu for four months. After all, who wouldn’t want to be a part of a Yash Raj poster, especially when Adi (Aditya Chopra) approaches you?”<br /><br />And Badmaash Company also revealed a new side to Das, his workaholic nature. “We shot in Bangkok, New York, Las Vegas and Philadelphia. We would be up by 5 am and shoot till evening, and after that I would perform locally for three nights a week after 10.30 pm for 45 minutes. My co-stars Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Meiyang Chang would be among my audience too, all very impressed with me!” he laughs. <br /></p>
