Indian Comedian Vir Das Lands an International Emmy for His Netflix Stand-up Special
- Balaji Telefilms co-founder Ektaa Kapoor becomes first Indian to win directorate award for excellence in television entertainment across all fields.
Comedian Vir Das won an International Emmy for Comedy for his Netflix stand-up special “Vir Das: Landing” at the awards ceremony held in New York City on Monday. He shared the award with Derry Girls from the U.K.
Das and Derry Girls were nominated alongside France’s Le Flambeau and Argentina’s El Encargado. In his fourth stand-up show which was filmed in New York, Das looks back at growing up in India and his move to America.
Considered India’s biggest stand-up comedian, he has now crossed over to become a global comedy sensation. In 2021, the comedian’s monologue, “Two Indias,” performed at the John F Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., sparked significant controversy. During the monologue, he delved into the duality of the country, addressing topics such as the response to Covid-19, air pollution, farmers’ agitation, cricket, and incidents of rape
Variety included him in its 2022 “Top 10 Comic To Watch” list, saying he is “filling an international vacancy for an authentic Indian perspective.” He was the first comedian from India to have a stand-up special on Netflix, which since resulted in a multi-special deal with the platform for them to be the exclusive distributor of his stand-up. Since then, Das has written and produced four Netflix specials in five years.
Balaji Telefilms co-founder Ektaa R. Kapoor became the first Indian to win the International Emmy Directorate Award, which celebrates excellence in television entertainment across all fields. The award was presented by New Age guru Deepak Chopra.
The production house, which was started by Kapoor and her parents Jeetendra Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor in 1994, is the single largest television content producer in South Asia. The trio opened the filmmaking subsidiary Balaji Motion Pictures in 2001 which produces several high-profile Bollywood titles each year. “To date, the Balaji banner has produced over 17,000 hours of TV and 45 movies, as well as launching Alt Balaji as a streaming platform in India,” according to a Variety report.
Actors Shefali Shah and Jim Sarbh were nominated in acting categories for their shows ‘Delhi Crime’ and ‘Rocket Boys’ respectively. Karla Souza and Martin Freeman won the awards for Best Actors.