It has been an eventful year packed with legal notices, social media drama and thousands of frequent flyer miles for Vir Das, who just won an International Emmy for Comedy with his Netflix special Landing. The stand-up comedian invited Film Companion into his curiously desolate Bandra house that is now also being used as his office. Amidst the echoes of our voices in an empty room, and the occasional hum of an insistent window AC, we sat down to chat about his win, his artistic process, and the blessing of being on back-to-back world tours.
Here are edited excerpts from the interview:
Film Companion (FC): Can you take us through the moment they called your name at the International Emmy Awards? How does it feel to have your work recognised on such a global scale?
Vir Das (VD): I’ve been there before, and I had the same expectations of when I last went there, which was that it’s a weird category in that it allows somebody like me to punch above my weight, right? I get to be nominated against Call My Agent or Derry Girls, which are shows that are, I would guess, millions of dollars per episode to produce. But laughter is laughter. I like the democracy of that category in that sense. And I do think that standard comedy specials are an underrated form of filmmaking, and they are filmmaking. I do like to be in that category. But I didn’t think I had a shot at all. In all the events, every time you heard Derry Girls, there was this huge round of applause. And everybody I spoke to, they were like, “I love Derry girls!” And I was like, “I also love Derry Girls!” I was just like, it’s nice to be there.
The last time I was at the Emmys, I didn’t fully get to experience it just because I was stressed the entire time. So I was like, “okay, the universe is giving me one more go around and that means I just have to really enjoy myself”. I have to drink the drinks, put on the jacket, and meet the people and go to the cocktail and shake hands and just kind of really enjoy myself. That’s what I did this time. I had zero expectations. I was there to cheer for Shefali Shah! That was my job (laughs).
FC: And then they called your name.
VD: Well, first he said that there’s a tie. Now, if you understand how the system of the Emmys works, that’s a very rare thing to have happened. It’s because people from all over the world take all the submissions. Let’s say I came out of the Asia Pacific region. I think there would have been maybe a thousand submissions from Asia Pacific. I’m up against Korea, Japan, India et cetera, et cetera. Then like 20 jurors from every region (who) watch every piece of content from around the world, and all of them vote.
You get to the top of Asia Pacific, then you make it to the top of the global shortlist and you get the same number of votes across the board, that’s a very statistically rare thing that happened. The minute they said there’s a tie, the room went silent. But I think that’s the first time I had a glimmer of hope, you know? It was a tie so I knew one of them was definitely going to be Derry Girls. I had two thoughts. I was like, “I hope I’m the other one and it would be nice to be the one they announce first” (laughs). And I was.
There was a largeish round of applause from people from all across the globe at that moment. And I think that’s the first time I realised, “oh, jurors from everywhere voted for my show”. It doesn’t quite dawn upon you, and then suddenly you see that somebody from Brazil is clapping or somebody from Korea is clapping, and they have voted for that show. That’s the first time I realised, “oh, the room knows this show”.
The rest of it is a blur. I don’t remember the speech. I don’t remember anything. I remember thinking I forgot to shake hands with the guy who gave me the award. Then I got whisked off stage and got surrounded by people very fast.