The things that you think will get you in trouble never do, says Vir Das, who believes that as a comedian his job is to just tell the joke and let the audience decide where the line is.
Das is back with his new special "Fool Volume", which comes after his international Emmy win for "Vir Das Landing" and his aim this time is to be "sillier".
"The things you think will get you into trouble never get you into trouble. It's the things that you can never predict that become the trouble," Das told PTI when asked if he ever censors his jokes for the fear of backlash. "The audience will censor me eventually. I'll just tell the joke, you let me know. The audience controls where the line is. They move the line every year. If you think about it, there's material that we could do 12 years ago that is considered very basic today. We didn't know that 12 years ago but the audience took us there... My job as an artist is to walk up to the line," he added.
Das, one of the top comedians in the country, has often courted controversy, whether it's for his jokes or for his 2021 monologue "I Come From Two Indias", where he spoke about growing disparity between rich and poor as well as the crime against women.
Asked whether he encounters questions like "Who are you to say this?" from people, Das said does not agree with the notion that one has to be "somebody" to say something.
"I think you can say something and maybe then you'll be someone because of what you said. You can have your voice and you can be very silly. And if you keep using it, that's what you need to. Don't lose it, don't shut it down." The comedian, who has 7.5 million followers on X and 1.7 million on Instagram and is known for razor sharp wit, said his reply to the question 'Who are you to say this?' is: "I'm an idiot".
"I'm largely uneducated. I'm not very intelligent. I'm not academically qualified at all. But I'm here to say stupid things. So the question is right. But I don't think who you are should determine how much you are allowed to say. I believe the idiot and the fool should be allowed to speak as much as the intellectual and the professor." Das said he just wanted to have some fun and "celebrate the fool in all of us" with his new special.
The idea for the special came after Das lost his voice just after he had sold out shows, won an International Emmy, and was generally going through a great phase in his career.
"My family was like, 'You've been talking too much. You've been sharing too much good news. Nazar lag gayee tumko'. I thought that was a very interesting starting point for a show saying, 'If there's joy in your life, do you tell people? Should you be silent about your joy?' "I think the learning of the special is 'You should scream your joy. So that's where the volume came from'. I think it's a sillier show, but about having a voice." The comedian, also known for starring in movies such as "Badmaash Company", "Go Goa Gone" and OTT series "Call Me Bae", is known for calling out trolls for their hypocrisy, often with a witty reply.
Has it become easier to balance having a voice and not getting dragged into controversies over the years? "If anybody can tell you the answer to this, then they are smarter than I am," Das replied.
Das may often speak about systemic issues in politics, religion and society through his stand-up, but in reality he is an optimist who believes that the world is getting better.
"If you consider the amount of people that are lifted out of poverty, have access to education, things that medicines can do and the average human lifespan, the world is largely getting better." The issue is that "everybody has an equally loud voice now".
"It's just that you weren't exposed to that earlier. Now you are exposed to all of the counter opinions. I think our brains have to work harder to figure out what we actually believe in." "Fool Volume" marks his fifth collaboration with Netflix after "Abroad Understanding" (2017), "Losing It" (2018), "For India" (2020) and "Landing" (2022).
Das said all of his shows offer a glimpse into the most "authentic" version of himself as an artist.
"I've done my 10,000 hours with stand-up. So I feel like I'm home on stage now. Whether you like me or you don't like me, you are at least meeting me. It's an authentic version of who I am.
"That's the journey of an artist is really, if you watch their art, you should know who they are. So whether you like me or not, that is your decision but when you come for my show, you will definitely meet me, you will know me and you will know how I feel and who I am." What is next for him? He is writing two shows, co-directed a movie and just finished his book "The Outsider: A Memoir for Misfits".
"I'll hopefully do another one (directing). I'm really thinking, 'What scares me? What have I not done before? Let's do that.' But in terms of the 10,000 hours, that's not the achievement. That's building the car, we have just landed on the highway and begun the journey.
"I feel like I know my voice and I feel like there are few people, not lots, but few people who are interested in that voice. Now I can try and surprise them and do new things with that voice." "Vir Das: Fool Volume" will start streaming on Netflix from July 18.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
