Laugh out loud

Jaideep Varma on his new film “I Am Offended”, which looks at stand-up comedy in the context of growing intolerance in the country

In a country where it is becoming increasingly difficult to speak one’s mind, stand-up comedy might well be one of the last few bastions of free speech. In his upcoming documentary, I Am Offended , Jaideep Varma looks at stand-up comedy “within the context of Indian humour and growing intolerancein the country today.” Apart from interviews with several major comedians — Varun Grover, Gursimran Khanba, Aditi Mittal, Sorabh Pant, Sanjay Rajoura — the film also features cartoonists, television humorists and film comedians. Jaideep, who has previously made the feature film Hulla , and the documentaries Leaving Home — the Life and Music of Indian Ocean and Baavra Mann – a Film on Sudhir Mishra & Other Indian Realities , replied to questions in an email interview. Excerpts:

Can you talk about the beginnings of I am Offended ? How and why did you decide to make a film about stand-up comedy?

Humour has always been very important to me — all my work so far has striven for that wherever possible anyway. Also, I have two good friends in stand-up comedy — Andy Zaltzman in London and Varun Grover in Mumbai, and I was curious to know how they did what they did. While shooting a show for Andy in Mumbai, I discovered Khamba, Tanmay and Aditi and liked their work quite a bit, so I decided to explore the scene a bit more.

What accounts for the proliferation of stand-up comedy in the last few years? Why, in your opinion, has it remained largely a metropolitan art form?

The Great Indian Laughter Challenge , the show on Star One, and Youtube, both have fostered this art form in India. It is not true that this is largely a metro art form — there are stand-up shows in Hindi and other languages too — their sensibility may be different and the shows may be thematically different but it is very much there. Raju Srivastav, Raju Nigam and of course Johnny Lever, these guys are big because of this (there are others too). We’ve included them in our film too.

How do the comics you interviewed respond to the growing culture of intolerance and the demands of political correctness? Are there any lines they feel they should not cross?

They are all doing the balancing act — of trying to push the envelope and also not crossing the ‘limit’. Sometimes they do, but so far, stand-up comedy has been somewhat below the radar as it is not a mass art form. Who knows how long that will be though. We have had a curious way of destroying a lot of good things in India over the last few years. I hope this art form won’t be a casualty for a little while more at least.

Do you think stand-up comedy faces the insidious risk of becoming a safe, inoffensive, family entertainment form? What must it do to avoid becoming all these?

Yes, absolutely, if the people who run the ‘moral agenda’ in this country decide to impose their retrograde view on it. We should protest against it strongly at the first signs of it happening instead of looking the other way as many of us do when that kind of thing actually happens.

What, for you, would be a desirable outcome of the film?

Everybody who worked on the film or funded it basically just want the film to be seen. By an Indian audience, because that is whom the film has been made for. We really don’t care about anything else. So, we’re trying to do what it takes to accomplish that. If that means playing it at some festivals to raise awareness, we will try for it. We will attempt a theatrical release too. Sadly, that is the only way films get proper coverage in the media in our country (which leads to many more people seeing it). Eventually, there’s always Youtube.