‘If Aamir Khan wants to make a movie about donkeys who do judo in Peru…’: Vir Das explains what success means to him

Comedian Vir Das spoke about what success means to him, and used a hypothetical analogy about Aamir Khan to illustrate his point. Appearing on The Streaming Show podcast, Vir examined the success he's experienced both as a touring comedian and as a performer with a string of hit Netflix specials, but also acknowledged that like so many others in his position, he played 'third leads' in movies to branch out, but the move backfired because his audience didn't accept him in those roles. For his latest special, Vir became the first Indian to win an International Emmy.

"I'm an idiot. But I define success as the time that passes between waking up with an idea, and somebody going 'okay'. That's success," he said. To explain his point, Vir continued, "If Aamir decided that he wants to do a movie about donkeys who do judo in Peru, tomorrow one judo master will fly to Peru, six donkeys will sign up to learn judo, one line producer will be like, 'Sir, Peru ka hotel mil gaya hai', and in five minutes, they would've opened a judo school in Peru for Aamir Khan's judo donkey movie. That's success."

Vir joked that he has been waking up with 20 ideas in his head since he was 18, but nobody is willing to hear him out. "So now, I'm trying to get that number down, and I think that's success." Vir found himself at the centre of a storm a couple of years ago, when a video that he posted online attracted backlash for its commentary on the state of contemporary India. He said that when the controversy was at its peak, he was advised by his lawyer to say nothing for six days, but start screaming from the rooftops if the anger didn't die down by day seven. But the experience also put things into perspective for him, and he said that there is a long queue of people in front of him before he gets into that kind of trouble again. "Your time will come, but then, you will be at the back of the line again," he said. "In your lifetime, you'll hopefully hit the front of the line only once."

He said that for comedy to achieve the sort of popularity that crime has as a genre in India, platforms need to hire executives with experience in comedy to green-light their material. Often, he said, platforms jump the gun and sign performers whose voices haven't fully developed, as opposed to waiting for them to have something to say first. Vir said that when a project does well, the entire team deserves credit for it, and more importantly, they all need to be aware of this information. Streaming data is still closely guarded by platforms. "When Vir Das: Landing came out, I read on Ormax that it's one of the top five most-watched pieces of content in the last two weeks... I wish there was a way for me to know that. I deserve to know that. My DP deserves to know that, my editor deserves to know that, my set designer deserves to know that."

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