There's hardly a medium Cyrus Broacha hasn’t explored. He has acted in plays, hosted shows, pranked pedestrians, covered news, performed stand-up, written columns, published a book and appeared in films.
It’s interesting, then, that the 48-year-old entertainment whiz has found his perch in the podcast world. Broacha started his podcast series, Cyrus Says, in 2015. As of October 24, the satirical chat show has clocked 443 episodes on IVM Podcasts, one of India’s leading podcast networks.
Broacha’s guests span the entire urban milieu: comedians, actors, sportspersons, chefs, journalists, entrepreneurs, doctors, policy experts and fellow podcasters. In this interview, Broacha holds forth on the thriving podcast scene in India, his freewheeling patter on the show and his love for the audio format.
How did Cyrus Says start?
From working in radio and television to hosting Bollywood birthday parties dressed as a dinosaur, I’ve done it all. Some of that stuff I can’t even share with my children. As an entertainer, you do whatever you can to survive. Podcasts happened when I met Amit Doshi (Founder, IVM) at a Starbucks cafe. He told me, in a thick American accent, that I would be perfect for podcasts. At the time I had no clue about the medium but pretended like I did.
How do you pick your guests for the show?
There was a lot of Bollywood and cricket when we started out. Plus it’s always difficult to get those people anyway. So the idea was to invite interesting guests from other arenas of life. These people often don’t have a publicist or a lot of press around them, but are fascinating voices to listen to. One of our guests had a double MBA from an Ivy League college. At 28, he chucked everything and came back to start an NGO for the girl child. Another guest failed seventeen times before putting together the money for his start-up. So there are many stories like that.
You have worked in visual mediums like television and film. What fascinates you about audio?
I think people are more honest and frank in audio. Also, when you speak to someone over an hour, it becomes like therapy. You go down memory lane and get a peek into their minds. My producers pull a lot of research before an episode. By and large, I don’t like to sit with a script or a set of questions. It kills the spontaneity of a conversation. The idea is to make people chill and open up — which is often hard with a camera around.
Do podcasts allow you to express yourself more freely?
A woman once sent me a message asking, ‘Why are you always bullying people who can’t fight back, like rickshaw drivers and motorbike owners?’ She was absolutely right. I am not picking on the Home Minister or the mayor of the city. But my point of defense was, I am only trying to talk about my life and not be a hoax. My life is not about farmers dying in Maharashtra. My problems are the metro not being constructed in time and traffic being delayed by an hour.
It’s been a while since you picked up an acting project.
I am working on The Week That Wasn’t and hoping to do another show in the indie space. Some (film) offers do come here and there. A guy once came with a script called Bakra. It was full of double entendre and sexual innuendo. (That kind of stuff) wouldn’t suit me. But I would love to get back to films. The easiest thing to do is be a character actor, work just three days and fit into the trailer. It’s the best job.