BENGALURU : If you scroll through different event listing websites, you would be spoilt for choice about shows to attend. But 10 years ago, when the standup culture was still picking up in Bengaluru, filmmaker Saad Khan, felt it was good to experiment with improv shows. That show completes 10 years, and to celebrate the milestone, the filmmaker is back with his old cast comprising Danish Sait, Dr Anil Abraham, Darius Sunawala, and Khan himself.
Khan recalls the time when he was doing a studying filmmaking at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and used to watch a lot of improv mainly Whose Line Is It Anyway? “I’ve seen a lot of improv shows, and in fact, they used to have this thing where on every week night, they would ask someone from the audience to also join them for a couple of minutes. I had done theatre in Bengaluru before going to the US. I had that confidence. So I just jumped on stage,” says Khan. Seeing his performance, where he was putting on a ‘fake American accent’, the artistes even invited him to jam with them.
“When I came to Bengaluru, the standup scene had just started to pick pace, but nobody knew about improv. And I immediately knew that there was a gap waiting to be filled. That’s when I started off after which others joined in,” says Khan. The list of artistes who were part of the improv journey includes now top comics like Kenny Sebastian, Sumukhi Suresh, and Cyrus Sahukar to name a few.
Of course, when a new concept is thrown at audiences, acceptance takes time. And Khan agrees, adding that the initial shows were housefull but it was mostly because of his theatre reputation. “I remember the first one or two years, the viewers would come, but would also wonder what was going on. It was later that we started having repeat attendees,” he says.
As the name suggests, the nature of the show is based on its spontaneity, but Khan is clear that this did not lead to any trouble. “I have never gotten into trouble from the beginning. We stay away from political drama and other subjects we deem unsafe. We’ve never been in a situation where we have had a problem or the show has had to be cancelled,” says Khan, adding, “In 2017, when Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady from Whose Line is it Anyway? came to India, we were invited to meet and greet them.”