Finding a voice of her own
BENGALURU: She’s proudly North Kannadiga and is trying really hard to take away the stereotypical ‘comical’ portrayals of people from the region in the Kannada media. She’s also one of the most-loved Instagram-based comedians with over 190K followers on the social media platform. We had the pleasure of watching Sonu Venugopal live in action with Punyakoti, her standup piece that has been three years in the making and takes us through her life so far. “I got into comedy because of a stupid bet that I had with my husband.
We were newly married and I had told him that standup comedy is something that I want to try at some point of time. And he kept telling me that I need to hit open mics. But the fear of rejection always got the better of me. I had the material ready but I was just not confident enough to perform it. Then, I came across these open mics in Urban Solace and at the same time I also spotted a sweater in Zara that I really liked. So, my husband told me if I built the courage to perform in Urban Solace, he would buy me the sweater and that’s how it all began,” begins Venugopal.
Earlier, quite popular as an RJ, Venugopal made the move to standup a few years ago. “Radio was my first love. I was intrigued and mesmerised by the power of the medium and I had the best time working in a radio station between 2011 and 2016. Radio shaped me into who I am today. I took a break and went to Switzerland and came back and joined a new radio station. The new place just didn’t challenge me enough and my radio life died a natural death,” explains Venugopal, who is also known for the several popular characters she has created as online avatars.
Known for being one of the few standup comedians who comfortably switches between Kannada and English, Venugopal is also leading a new wave of stand-up comedians with hyper-local content, accents and regional nuances. “The standup scene in Kannada is definitely getting more diverse. Lot of new voices are coming in. But, it’s definitely not enough. I feel there are so many people out there who can speak in Kannada, who also want their local takes on comedy to be represented and I encourage them all to come on stage and start doing it. I consciously decided to use the North Karnataka dialect and accent because the representation of the people from that area in the state was way too little and way too stereotypical. I was fed up of the ‘gutkha eating, spitting on the road’ type of representation. I really wish that at some point of time, we’ll finally be ready for a North Karnataka based character as a leading lady in a series or a film and not necessarily in a comedic role!” she concludes.