Comedian, actor and now budding filmmaker – Vir Das’s storied career has consistently been one of reinvention. Arguably the most famous Indian comedian in the world, Das recently published The Outsider: A Memoir for Misfits (HarperCollins India). In brief, impressive chapters, Das tells the story of his life, which is a very Bollywood tale full of ups and downs. How did this strange man from Noida start washing utensils in Chicago Cafe? Furthermore, how did this daily life intersect with show-business? Full of amusing anecdotes and self-deprecating humor, outsider A vivid account of an unusual path to stardom. The Hindu recently spoke to Das during a video interview. The following are edited excerpts from it.
When you dedicate this book to your parents in the beginning, also write, ‘Look, I finally got some homework done.’ Finally, you write about being dyslexic and taking up journaling. Tell us how you started writing outsider-And how has your relationship with the written word evolved over the years.
To be honest, I was against writing this book. My agents in America called me and convinced me to do it because it felt like a natural progression of an American comic’s career path; ‘You’ve won an Emmy, now write a book.’ And because my career is kind of split between two markets, India and America, I feel like I have a lot to do in both places, you know? If you’ll let me, I’ll write a book about failure, wondering how I got invited to this wonderful party. I am a five feet eight and a half inches tall man from Noida and I have entered the film industry, stand-up comedy industry.
When you look back at the time when you were working multiple jobs in America, trying to make ends meet, what lessons do you think this phase taught you – in life, and not just in your art?
I’ll be honest with you; I don’t know. When you are in the moment, you are in the moment. I was a security guard, a low-paid intern, I was washing dishes. But it wasn’t like a ‘mindfulness’ moment, it was pure movement. I was just trying to raise enough money to buy the next pack of cigarettes or a glass of wine for that cute girl, and then maybe I’d get a chance to kiss her, you know? Actually, it’s very difficult for me in retrospect because I think it’s for the audience. That’s why writing this book was such a struggle, because I had to go back to all these stages of my life and think about them in terms of the ‘bigger context’.
your directorial debut Mubarak Patel is a spy comedy produced by Aamir Khan. As a world-class storyteller and an experienced actor in your chosen medium (stand-up), how did you deal with sitting in that director’s chair day after day? In the book you write about what the “camera angle” of your dreams is like.
They do, I have very cinematic dreams, there’s camera angles, there’s a soundtrack. I say this without any arrogance: I don’t know yet whether I’m any good as a director or not. But I know this is what I was looking for. The best thing about standup is that your craziness affects every breath of the audience. But for a standup comedian, that ‘flow state’ only lasts for an hour or so each time. And as an actor, I would probably find it frustrating to wander around a film set all day for 45 minutes of work, 45 minutes of ‘flow state’. when i was directing Mubarak PatelI felt that way all day, for 9 hours at a time.
Before Covid, at least, most comedians had this time-honored method of testing new material in small venues and making changes to jokes based on feedback, etc. For obvious reasons, this has changed fundamentally since Covid; How have you found this change affecting your writing, your own style of comedy?
Covid changed my entire comedy voice. I was hiking along a hill with a speaker ten on tenThis series of YouTube videos. Suddenly, you’re in the middle of the woods with these guys, so you can’t talk about ridiculous nonsense. I was like, you know guys, we’ve climbed up the side of a hill for this, let’s talk about the country, right? It was a good time to do political comedy as the country was in lockdown. And once I got a taste for it there was no turning back.
In India, it is not possible for me to test the content too much because I know it will come out…I look at the phone during my shows in Delhi and Mumbai. Sometimes it’s easier to test stuff at a famous place like the Comedy Cellar in New York, where everyone is killer, where you have to be on your A-game.
Since you are on tour in the US right now, I have to ask if you have worked on Zohran Mamdani’s imprint yet? What do you think of their Bollywood-themed campaign video?
Yes, I have worked on some points. Remy (Youssef) got the chance to play Mamdani on Saturday Night Live, but all five of us brown people got the audition call (laughing)Me and Hasan (Minhaj) and Nimesh Patel and a few others. Look, I think he’s focusing on who he is. Say what you want about the current stage of America, but it is, at its best, a place where strangers come with their stories, and where those stories get people’s attention. And he (Mamdani) is able to do it incredibly well in an authentic way.
published – November 14, 2025 06:15 am IST