Being Cyrus

VJ-turned-actor found more success playing a female parody of Simi Garewal than as a male performer.

Cyrus Sahukar is one of more famous Video Jockeys of India who burst onto the scene with his stint on the music channel MTV India. He did dabble into acting but it has not been as fruitful as his hosting gigs, the VJ-turned-actor told Times Of India.

Sahukar is currently busy with his new web-show, The Bench where he interacts with renowned celebrities and makes fun of them. The show has currently had only two episodes so far where he has hosted famous Bollywood directors, Karan Johar and Farah Khan.

The VJ has an interesting back-story as to how he came up with the concept for the web-show, which is a parody of the many failed talk shows to have come out.



“Some time ago, I read this term somewhere called velleity. It’s the will and desire to do something but not enough action to ever back it up. I couldn’t find a better word to explain the situation of my life and my friends and the people I know. When I read it for the first time, I went in a corner and wept for an hour,” narrated the former host of India’s Got Talent.

He further added that he had many potential ideas for shows and it was only after brainstorming with his colleagues, Rhea Kapoor and Karan Boolani, that he came up with a concept for a show where the central premise of the talk show “was what if it’s a show which is a disaster”.

Though this isn’t the first time the actor has done a parody show as he has previously hosted shows as the characters Pidhu the Great and Semi Girebaal, which themselves are spoofs of Navjot Singh Sidhu and Simi Garewal.

Sahukar, who has had minor roles in popular films like Rang De Basanti, Delhi 6 and Aisha, spoke of how he had found more success playing a female character on screen. “I found more success as a woman than I ever found as a man. For that show, we got more ratings than the show we spoofed, which is really strange,” exclaimed Cyrus Sahukar.

He stated Bollywood was gradually opening up to new ideas which was evident by the work being done by some of the artists such as Alia Bhatt in the mockumentary where she spoofs her infamous visit to Koffee with Karan where she did not know the name of the president of India.

“What’s happened is that Bollywood has genuinely opened up to new stuff and new ideas. Everyone, at some point or another, wants to do something fun about their own image. Like when we did Pidhu, Sidhu himself came and did six episodes with us, and he approached us for that. The only thing a star expects is that the quality and the idea itself should be interesting. Earlier also, I believe all the stars were open to it but the ideas were a little hammy. Now, the ideas and formats are getting interesting,” said the VJ.



Regarding his plans in Bollywood he said that he is writing 12 short films with a Samit Basu and has also acted in a short film, Words with Gods, alongside Rajkumar Rao and Richa Chadda which was directed by Mira Nair.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th,  2014.

 

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