In a few hours from now, popular Indian comedian-actor Vir Das will take up hosting duties at the International Emmy Awards 2024. Das is the first Indian to host the award show that honours the best of TV and Web content from across the world.
Ahead of the award ceremony, Das candidly admitted that he is ‘nervous’ to be hosting the show.
The actor is not new to the International Emmy stage. He had won an International Emmy in 2023 for his Netflix special Landing.
While speaking to AP, Das admitted he was nervous about capturing the feeling in the room. “I’m very nervous. I’m not going to lie. I, you know, it’s a weird month to be a foreigner in America hosting a massive award show, you know, in a room full of foreigners in a hotel in New York City. I don’t think it gets quite as timely as that, you know. And so I think I’m nervous about capturing the feeling in the room and capturing the feeling of the country and making it a celebration of underdogs, which is who I think the people who come to the International Emmys are underdogs,” said the comedian while referring to the recently concluded US presidential election results.
Das, one of the most popular stand-up comics in India, also remarked that comedy had changed in the last five years.
“I think comedy turned a corner five, six years ago. I started coming to America to kind of just learn how to be good at stand-up in 2015-16, right after this sort of a nine-year stint in movies in India. And you still at that point had to kind of bend to the local version of you that Americans understood, you know? So it was a lot of like, ‘Here’s the five things they know about India and do jokes about those five things,’ right? So doctors, blah blah blah, etc. etc.. And then Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, etc. etc. and now it’s kind of more important to do you. And no matter where you are in the world, can I take you home with me? Not literally, but, can I – like a (Dave) Chappelle takes you to Ohio, and I’ve never been, you’re coming to Mumbai with me.”
Back in September, Das had who could dress him up for the awards night. Stating that he did not want to wear a fancy designer for the occasion, Das had requested interested people to reach out to his team so that he could ‘wear something Indian from home.’