Why does comedy in India make Ratna Pathak Shah ‘cringe’? How did comedy ‘save her’? She reveals that and more in this candid chat with Brut.
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00:00The kind of stuff that I see on television today, which goes under the name of comedy,
00:13it makes me cringe.
00:19Hello, this is Ratna Pathak Shah for Brute.
00:30I got very little work when I was much younger.
00:33Idhar Udhar on television was my first real paying job.
00:37And it was fantastic because it was a comedy.
00:39I had never imagined that I would be a comedy actor.
00:42I really had no preparation for it.
00:46But Anand Mahindra cast me for it.
00:48I loved the idea of doing this slightly dumb but wacky girl.
00:55I loved the idea of the show.
00:58So I immediately said yes to it.
01:00And I find that it was the smartest thing I ever did.
01:03It saved me from becoming a bore as an actor.
01:05Comedy saved me.
01:07Comedy really did.
01:09In India, comedy is such a short-changed genre.
01:19So little work is done in this business.
01:23I mean, it's embarrassing how badly we do comedy.
01:27Considering that we are a bunch of people in this country who are always ready to answer.
01:32Everyone has a funny line in their conversation.
01:38But how do we translate it creatively?
01:42We haven't learnt it yet.
01:44I'm embarrassed when people say that your show, Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, is what we like so much.
01:50It's the best comedy.
01:51I say, Sarabhai is 2006.
01:54This is 2021.
01:57It's about to end.
01:59We don't have another good comedy show.
02:04We should be ashamed.
02:07We shouldn't be patting ourselves on the back.
02:10That we did one thing in 2006.
02:13We really don't know how to write comedy in India.
02:16And we have been very cheap on that front.
02:21I mean, the kind of stuff that I see on television today, which goes under the name of comedy,
02:26it makes me cringe.
02:28I have no problem with the topic you choose.
02:31But if you don't work hard, I have a problem with you.
02:35Please show me a good example of your taste.
02:47One of the big things that hasn't changed is the desire to put the box office collections above everything else.
02:55I'm afraid we haven't got past that as yet.
02:58And it is a pity.
03:00I mean, I know it is important.
03:01Because film and now OTT and television, they are expensive media.
03:06But if that becomes your prime function, if that becomes your prime motivator,
03:11then there is a huge loss in quality.
03:21The scripting has become significantly better.
03:24People are spending more time and energy and money, I think, working on the script.
03:30I have also worked at times when the script would arrive on the day of the shoot.
03:35And sometimes just five minutes before the shot was to be taken, etc.
03:40Now, finally, I'm getting the kind of work that I wanted to do.
03:43And unfortunately, I'm the wrong color and the wrong age now.
03:48All the same, it has meant that I got a chance to do a lot of interesting characters in the last four or five years.
04:19I hope so.
04:21You know, I think it's about bloody time.
04:24Excuse my language.
04:26But it is about time that we got out of this habit of, I'm so embarrassed, I'm so nervous.
04:31What are you nervous about?
04:33You're doing your job, I'm doing mine.
04:35Why should we start with this business?
04:39I'm going to be wrong, you know, but you are always right.
04:41No, I want people to be able to stand up for what they say and what they believe in.
04:46There's a way of doing it.
04:48You don't have to be rude.
04:50But you've got to be determined.
04:52And you've got to know your job.
04:54Acting is not easy.
04:56Good acting is not easy, let us put it like that.
04:59Film, that is the real one job it can do.
05:02It can't change the world.
05:03It certainly cannot make you a better person or anything like that.
05:07But it can record the time that it's in.
05:10And if you do this, and do it well, then I think it will be a huge contribution.