Kusha Kapila recalls getting flak for entering ‘sacred’ comic space with Comicstaan, being called ‘unfunny girl’

Amazon Prime Video’s comedy reality show Comicstaan will soon be back with its third season. While Abish Mathew has taken hosting duties on the show for the third time, this time he has also been joined by Instagram influencer Kusha Kapila. Hosting the comedy show is something Kusha has taken very seriously, and hopes to prove those wrong who believe content creators should stay away from the ‘sacred comic space.’ Also Read| Dolly Singh says 99% celebs she’s met were ‘warm’, showed her how to stay humble

While announcing her appearance as a host on Comicstaan, Kusha had said on her Instagram account that she realises the audience is not used to watching content creators in ‘sacred comedy spaces,’ adding that she has prepared hard for the part. Elaborating on it in a recent conversation with Hindustan Times, Kusha said that she wanted to let people know she has not taken it for granted.

She said, “We are creators no, so there’s this joke that after 15 seconds we go (blank). First of all, it’s 90 seconds now, so we speak for one and a half minutes. But Comictaan is a long format show, so I just wanted to tell them that I have worked hard for it, it’s not like we are just there.”

Kusha also recalled how she was criticised after the news of her entering a comedy show first emerged. She said, “Creators get a lot of flak for going into the sacred comic space. This guy was like, ‘how can she be the judge, how can you make her the judge, she doesn’t know how to do anything, this unfunny girl.’ Then I responded that ‘no, I am just the host.’ Then he was like ‘oh then it’s fine. All the best.'” However, Kusha noted that the reaction to her new venture has been ‘very positive’ lately.

Kusha added that the Comicstaan team helped her in understanding how to navigate her hosting duties. She said, “You just need to understand why a certain joke is written and how it needs to be delivered. You need to intellectualise these things a little bit. You can’t be like we’ll wing it, not everything can be spontaneous.”

Kusha has made a long journey since she appeared as a guest on Abish Mathew’s talk show Son of Abish in 2020. Both Kusha and Abish were all praises for each other as they discussed their bond and the experience of co-hosting Comicstaan. Abish said, “I feel like Kusha and I are the same person. I had South Indian genes, she had North Indian genes. But when we meet, I feel like sooner or later Kusha should do a talk show, and I should be transitioning towards what Kusha is doing.”

Kusha added to this, “You know how they talk about galaxies colliding a billion years from now, that’s what they mean by that. Abish is gonna become me, and I am gonna become Abish.” Kusha also compared Abish to Ranveer Singh as she spoke about his personality. She said, “Abish is the best. I auditioned for Comictsaan with him. Ranveer Singh said in a recent interview with Koffee With Karan that he is light-footed in the journey of life. I think Abish is that person. He is very light-footed in the journey of life, and there is a certain calmness that he brings to the collective hyper energy of the host. So there is this lightness of being. To be Abish is the lightness of being.”

Aadar Malik, who will be making a special appearance in Comicstaan, chimed in, “I am a very heavy-footed individual, I stomp through life.” The comedian, who was recently seen in an episode in the anthology series Modern Love Mumbai, spoke about how he navigates between three different types of career- comedy, acting, and music. Aadar happens to be the nephew of musician Anu Malik, and often uses music in his comedy content.

He explained, “I think I like acting because acting and comedy kind of overlap each other. I get to do everything in these two forms, and I have realised I don’t want to separate the idea of stand-up comedy from acting on stage or something like that. It’s become this little animal that I like to wrangle every day on my own. Abish was the one who told me that stop bothering with what you think will work or not and start doing whatever you want to. I started doing that quite recently and I am really enjoying it. So I was hosting a show last night and today I will probably go to a theatre rehearsal and in the night I will probably do another show.”

The comedians also answered whether they feel pressure to be more politically correct and put in extra efforts to not offend anyone in their comedy bits. Aadar, who mentioned it later that he has a law degree, joked, “Lawyers handle those things nowadays. So we are pre-emptively told what will work and what will not.”

Abish said, “It’s interesting. For example, when you are creating a show that’s going to have a massive following, Our objective is to always give a show that everybody can laugh at. That’s why there’s a term called ‘art vs art by committee.’ Art is where an individual can put up their own opinion, art by committee is when a bunch of artists make sure that the best product comes out that has the best ethics and all the tonalities match. So it’s always interesting to not just look at the show, but also the individual artists that are attached.”

Kusha, whose Instagram feed is filled with humourous and relatable reels, in addition to her collaboration with celebrities like Ranbir Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha, also discussed how she manages to balance her career as a content creator with that of hosting and acting. Kusha, who was previously seen in the Netflix anthology series Ghost Stories in an episode produced by Karan Johar, will soon be seen alongside Masaba Gupta and Neena Gupta in Masaba Masaba. However, she said she does not plan on abandoning her followers and will continue to create content for them. Also Read| Instagram star Vishnu Kaushal on Feels Like Home: Never thought I’d be the lead

Revealing how she balances acting and content creating, Kusha said, “When you are on a set, there is a lot of waiting, Aadar will tell you that. Especially if you are playing a secondary character. There is just so much time on your hand. Once I shot for a song that had just my shoulder and I went five days to shoot for it. I made a lot of content in those five days. Comictsaan was obviously very demanding, and my content did take a backseat when I was doing Comicstaan because it is a very demanding show, for the host especially. Our day starts at 7-8 in the morning, and gets over at 1 at night. So it’s very taxing. But content will never take a backseat. I love making content, I enjoy it a lot.”

Comicstaan Season 3, which will see comedians competing for the title of India’s next best comedian, will start streaming on Amazon Prime Video on July 15. This season will have Zakir Khan, Sumukhi Suresh, Neeti Palta, and Kenny Sebastian as the judges.