The latest episode of The Great Indian Kapil Show, streaming on Netflix, brought together four of the mo
st celebrated names in the OTT space — Jaideep Ahlawat, Vijay Varma, Pratik Gandhi and Jitendra Kumar.
Kapil Sharma kicked off the episode by asking his guests about their strangest fan interactions. Jitendra Kumar shared, “One of my fans recognised me at the airport, but nobody else realised that I’m ‘Jeetu Bhaiya.’”
Vijay Varma recalled a breakfast run-in where a fan tried to get his girlfriend to recognise him.
Kapil then asked Jitendra about leaving behind an IIT degree to become an actor, wondering how his parents reacted. “My parents were very upset when I left my engineering career after graduating from IIT and decided to pursue acting. But when I started gaining fame, they began warming up to it. Even now, they sometimes ask me if I want to do UPSC,” Jitendra said.
Pratik Gandhi, who also comes from an engineering background, said, “Engineering ke baad aapko sach mein pata chalta hai ki aapko life mein kya karna hai.” He also spoke about the various jobs he took up before finding his footing in the industry.
Vijay Varma recounted his struggles to afford acting school and how a friend helped him with fees. “Maine ek dost ko bola mera selection ho gaya hai, lekin mere paas paise nahin hain zyada. Usne paise de diye fees ke. Maine kaha ab permission toh nahin milegi ghar se, bhaagte hain. Toh main ghar se bhaag gaya,” he said, drawing laughter and applause from the audience.
One of the most memorable moments of the episode came when Kapil asked Jaideep Ahlawat how he proposed to his wife. Jaideep responded in his characteristic deadpan tone, “Aapko lagta hai ki Jaat aadmi ko propose karna aata hai?”
Jaideep explained that his wife was his junior at FTII, and their relationship grew over time. Vijay Varma, who studied with Jaideep, added, “Hum sabko pata tha ki bhabhi aane waali hai”.
Midway through the episode, the energy on set shifted when Jackson Wang made an unexpected appearance, catching both the audience and the guests by surprise. The K-pop star instantly struck a rapport with Kapil and the actors and even tried, in vain, to make them groove to his song. “This is like garba,” Pratik hilariously commented.
However, the show’s recurring comedy sketches, featuring Sunil Grover, Krushna Abhishek and Kiku Sharda, continued to rely on worn-out tropes like cross-dressing, recycled punchlines, and flirting with guests, offering little originality. About time the team cared to think out of the box?
