Vir Das recalls how Netflix offered him his first special film

Comedian and actor Vir Das has made millions laugh and continues to do so with his stand-up gigs and videos on the internet. The Delhi Belly actor created history two years ago when he won the International Emmy Award in 2023 for his series Vir Das: Landing on Netflix in the ‘Best Comedy Series’ segment. Vir recently sat with mid-day for an exclusive chat on Sit with Hitlist, where he spilt the beans on his comedy special on the streaming platform, which is loved by many.

Vir Das on how he got his first special film

Vir’s journey was not an easy one. Talking about how he landed a comedy special with a platform like Netflix, he shares, “There`s a lovely guy called David Taggioff, who I worked with when I was earlier with CAA. He said to me, ‘Let`s do one show at the Hollywood Improv, let`s book it up, invite the whole town.’ But it`s not a lot of seats, it`s 200-250 seats, but that night, Netflix, HBO agents, all of these guys showed up to watch the new Indian guy who sold out the Improv, and it kind of all went from that night.  Five months after that, Netflix offered me a special film.”

Vir Das says comedy special is like filmmaking

When asked about the difference between a show and a special, Vir reveals, “A special is filmmaking, you`re competing with filmmaking. You have to tell a story, there has to be three acts to it, there has to be the right shot.” 

He further shares, “It doesn`t get enough credit for filmmaking, it`s 20 cameras you`ve shot, you`ve lit, you`ve mixed, you`ve graded, you`ve sound designed, except I only get one take. But you told a story, so it`s very much filmmaking. This one (Netflix special) was a Mumbai crew that shot 20 cameras in Mumbai, then the same crew went to London and shot nine cameras in this massive church. Then the best comedy venue in the world, the Comedy Cellar, the iconic New York comedy club where we went and shot, with a full desi crew, so it`s like shooting a movie, you go outdoors.”

Best time to be a comic

“We are the largest YouTube audience in the world, or maybe number 2. In English, if a US comic gets 2 million views on a special or a YouTube video, people say, Well done, well done here’ and here, in the beginning, a Hindi comic is getting 30 million views on a Hindi video. There has never been a better time to be a comic.”