He is still "just a guy on a stool" for whom the audience's laughter will always be more precious than accolades, says Vir Das, the first Indian comic to win an International Emmy Award.
Das won the award for his Netflix stand-up special Vir Das: Landing in the Best Comedy category at a ceremony in New York on Monday night. He tied with the much-acclaimed British series Derry Girls for the coveted prize.
"The job is to take the beautiful chosen people of the world and humanise them a little bit by making an idiot out of myself... I hope we all just get sillier and continue to be fools," the actor-comic, who returned home on Wednesday, told PTI in a virtual interview.
The future of the Indian comedy scene is "tremendous", the 41-year-old said.
"I'm underslept. The phone has been going a little insane. But I'm just grateful. I don't think anything has fully sunk in yet. Luckily, I have a long flight back to India to process all of it." An award, he said, is a gift and recognition laughter.
"In my speech, I made sure to thank the Indian people for their laughter. I said it was the soundtrack to my life," he said.
Injecting a note of reality as he celebrates his first International Emmy trophy, he said it will get him "maybe 30 seconds extra applause" when he walks out on the stage. After that, it will only be about the laughs.
"I will have to make them (the audience) laugh. At the end of the day, they will be like 'We have paid for this, so make us laugh'." Das, who has often courted trouble over his quirky, observational performances and social media posts, is already readying for shows in Chandigarh and Bengaluru.
He was one of the three Indians to be nominated at the 51st International Emmy Awards along with Shefali Shah for Delhi Crime season two (Netflix) and Jim Sarbh for Rocket Boys (SonyLIV). Besides, producer Ektaa R Kapoor of Balaji Productions was honoured with the International Emmy Directorate Award.
