Jokes Apart

Women are slowly coming into their own in the Indian comedy space

- Priyanka Bhadani

After a few years of working on the television show The Week That Wasn’t, along with Cyrus Broacha and Kunal Vijaykar, improv artiste Kaneez Surka had approached a person from the top management (whom she prefers not to name) to give her equal pay as the men, as she worked just as hard as them. She was asked to become famous before claiming it.

Things have changed gradually. With so much talk and awareness about inclusivity, she was offered the same pay as the other six male judges on the first season of Comicstaan, which was streamed on Amazon Prime Video last year. In the newly released second season as well, the pay was equal for all the judges. This time, however, she says that there is better gender representation, as there are two more female judges— Sumukhi Suresh, who was a host in the first season, and Neeti Palta.

The reality show for standup comics has boosted Prime Video’s viewership in India. Vijay Subramaniam, director and head of content, Amazon Prime Video, India, says that after the first season in July-August last year, the platform witnessed a 25 per cent increase in the consumption of other comedy specials on it.