Persecution of Comedians Has a Chilling Effect feat. Anuvab Pal
At a time when comedians are being targeted by the State and mob attacks, such as the case of Munawar Faruqui, who has been in jail for a month (as of this recording) for a joke he did not make, or Kunal Kamra or Agrima Joshua, it is a good time to talk to someone like Anuvab Pal - standup comedian, screenwriter and novelist, a veteran comedian, to talk about this dangerous trend.
On this episode, Sidharth and Anuvab get into Anuvab's history as a comedian, being an English comic, his interest in the kind of comedy that has longevity, studying finance and dramatic writing at a university in Ohio and a playwriting diploma from Juilliard, how he met and became friends with Manish Acharya the filmmaker and the movie 'Loins of Punjab' (2007), how he got a job with Reuters, coming back to India and what the atmosphere was like then, the evolution of the standup comedy scene and comedy audiences in India, the opening of The Comedy Store in Mumbai in 2010, which led to the first generation of comedians, the persecution of comedians that has become so mainstream nowadays, what comedians can and should do in times like these, how censorship and self-censorship have increased in our country today, what the role of a comedian comes down to, and lots more. Tune in for a riveting conversation.
Follow Anuvab on Twitter & Instagram: https://twitter.com/AnuvabPal and https://instagram.com/anuvabpal
Follow Sidharth Bhatia on Twitter and Instagram @bombaywallah
https://twitter.com/bombaywallah and https://instagram.com/bombaywallah
You can listen to this show on The Wire's website, the IVM Podcasts website, app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.
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