Cyrus Sahukar is undoubtedly one of the most entertaining and talented TV and talk show hosts of the country. And the video jockey who has shown his flair in acting in films like Rang De Basanti, Delhi 6 and Aisha, will be hosting the second edition of Discovery School Super League along with co-host Mini Mathur. Quizzing for the 40-year-old is one of his favourite things and here he speaks about work post-pandemic, the evolving comedy scene in India and more.
Back to work
Being back to work and shooting for the quiz show during the pandemic has been full of new challenges and talking about them Cyrus says, “It’s 100 per cent more tedious. First, I had to be extremely patient to make sure that the questions were audible. Also, we had to monitor the Internet connection constantly.” Continuing he says, “Though we tried to keep the unit down to the bone, there were times when I was the only one in the studio without a mask. That keeps playing in the back of the mind and gives you a different kind of anxiety.”
Fewer people on the sets meant Cyrus had to do his own make-up. Recalling, he says, “I learnt it all from these dangerous tutorials on YouTube and ended up looking a lot like a joker on the first couple of trials!”
New projects
Cyrus was seen essaying the role of a motivational speaker in Kadak earlier this year, that also starred Kalki Koechlin and Ranvir Shorey. He also wrote the dialogues for the film that was released digitally. Talking about his next project - Gaurav Chawla’s Kaun Banega Shekhawati, he offers, “I am excited to be a part of Nikhil Advani produced web series. Just like Kadak which had an ensemble cast, here too, I will get to work with Lara Dutta, Soha Ali Khan and Naseeruddin Shah among others.”
Fresh comedy
Talking about the explosion of comedy scene on social media sites he says, “Comedy has moved very heavily on online platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube and it is a completely different job profile now. It is now a lucrative profession. The comedy scene is going to become more interesting because though there will be clutter but there will also be the birth of different perspective and creative voices. That is really going to be useful.”