Only 6 people showed up to watch Vir Das' debut film made by Vikram Bhatt: ‘I went with family, show was cancelled'

Indian Express

a day ago

From a career point of view, Bollywood, or any film industry for that matter, might be one of the most difficult industries to break into. Many enter and a few survive, but some voluntarily move out of that sphere only to come back stronger. Comedian Vir Das is one such individual, who bagged interesting roles at the start of his career and decided to leave Bollywood to become the comedic giant he is today. But it wasn't all Netflix specials and red carpet appearances when he started this journey. At one point Das couldn't fill 7 seats in a theatre or even hold on to a job for more than 3 months.
Coming off the release of the brand-new Netflix special Fool Volume, Das sat down with Mid-Day and divulged some stories from his early days in Bollywood and what all led to him finally moving to comedy. 'I got short-circuited into Bollywood. I am a trained actor; I have a bachelor's in theatre, and I saw Rang De Basanti in Regal, and looking at people like Sharman Joshi and R Madhavan made me believe that I could also do something. While I was at CNBC, I did a movie called Mumbai Salsa, produced by Vikram Bhatt. I actually went to audition for the third lead, and I showed Vikram the special I had recorded. By the time I got to Bandra, he called me and said, 'You're the hero of the movie.' That was going to be my first 'big move' in Bollywood, and I showed up on the first day for the first show with my family, and it got cancelled because only 6 people showed up.'
ALSO READ: Vir Das says his journey is different from Zakir Khan or Kapil Sharma: 'One is steeped in poetry, the other's a Punjabi everyman; I'm from nowhere'
He even talked about how the move to Mumbai actually went down, and how within the span of three months he was hosting a show with the biggest names in Bollywood, and how he soon got fired. Das eventually started working as emcee. 'I start my act, and I am telling jokes, and the first person that comes up to me is Jackie Shroff, who says 40 things, but I don't understand a word because I was so starstruck. Next Aishwarya Rai comes up on stage and says, 'You're very funny.' I killed that set, and the next morning I was told that the Times Group is starting a new channel, and I will be a VJ (video jockey). I had no idea what the job is, and I was terrible at it, so I was fired within three months.'
Das admitted that he was never suitable for the VJ job, and he soon found his footing in the city once he started working for CNBC. Das then auditioned for two movies, both of which he eventually got, Delhi Belly and Badmaash Company, before leaving to do a very small role in the Imtiaz Ali film Luv Aaj Kal. He recalled the role and said that he needed the money and did the role even after Imtiaz himself told him not to. He said, 'At one point I was completely strapped for cash, and they needed someone to do one scene and some background work in the film. Imtiaz, to his credit, who had seen me doing standup before, called me up and said, 'Vir, this is not much; it's just one or two scenes in the film.' If you watch the film now and look at the song 'Twist', I am one of the guys dancing behind Saif Ali Khan. I was in London, and I got paid Rs 8 lakh for it.'