Funnier Than Thou

So you’ve seen Vir Das’ newest stand-up special? Gear up, for the comedian has big plans to stay in your face, all year long.

- NIDHI GUPTA

In the 13 years that he’s been around, Vir Das has been written off twice. He talked of one heartbreaking newspaper headline in his last Netflix special, Vir Das: Losing It. Sitting cross-legged on an armchair in his new office in Bandra – hat intact – he’s about to tell me the other. “When Is Vir Das Going To Realise That His Plan Hasn’t Worked Out,” he recites, palms forming brackets around the imaginary 29-font size words in the air in front of him. “That was really brutal,” he laughs. “I didn’t even know I had a plan!”

Yet, here he is, not just surviving, but thriving: Three Netflix specials in as many years, along with a stint on an American TV show called Whisky Cavalier, and a guest role on the hit sitcom Fresh Off The Boat. And Das has big plans for 2020. “I have two movies, half a world tour, a gig at a ski festival in Aspen and, maybe, a movie out there as well. My resolution for 2020 is that I’m not going to repeat myself. I’m just going to do shit that terrifies me.” The fright fest begins right away, with a goofy rap album courtesy his band Alien Chutney.

Why a rap album?

I wanted to do something like what Randall Park did on Always Be My Maybe, like “I Punched Keanu Reeves”. I’m calling this sad rap because Indian rap is going so hard, you know? We are three songs down: They are called “Thoda Hard”, “Pyaaz”, as in onions, and “I Am A Desi Beyonce”.

Drop us a verse?

[Laughs] It goes: “I don’t mean to be egregious/ But my dad and mom say/ I’ve got a lot of talent/ Like a desi Beyonce.”

Well, you put egregious in a rap song.

This might be the cringiest thing I do this year.

So, no more Mastizaade?