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Mumbai, Comedy is an art form and not a threat to society, says stand-up comedian Sahil Shah, who hopes fans will stand by comedians during tough times. The Indian comedy scene has been in the spotlight over the past few months whether it was Ranveer Allahabadia's comments about "parents and sex" on Samay Raina's show "India's Got Latent", which sparked backlash, or Kunal Kamra's alleged "traitor" remark directed at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, which ignited a major political storm. Shah, known for his sharp observational humour about everyday things, said one must start viewing comedy as an art form.
"You need to realise at what point of time does the art form become a threat? People think it's a threat. It's not a threat..
. It's an art form. "Eventually there will come a time where I think if people are watching us and love what we do, they would also be there for us when we are down," the comedian told PTI on the sidelines of the Mumbai Comic Con 2025 here.
At the end of the day, Shah said comics are "supporting" each other. "Because if one person gets attacked, all of us get attacked. It's a matter of what you can and cannot say.
It's a matter of conversation, freedom, boundaries, speech, and a lot of things. In that sense, we have to stand by each other," he added. Does he try to stay away from topics that might trigger controversy? The comic said it wasn't like that for him.
"It depends on what phase in life I am right now. I'm in a phase in life where I'm talking about myself. Unless someone has a problem with me as a whole, I don't think .
I am happy talking about myself and my problems which are a lot. So that's what I'm sticking to." It may have started out as a hobby, but stand-up comedy has now become more than a job for Shah.
"It's now an industry. Right now people are like, 'Oh my god, oh, hey!' Being a comedian is a thing. It's good to be part of that business.
.. We started at a very young age.
Even the jokes we did were different when we started. "All of us are now growing. We are doing bigger things, better things.
We are writing, we are performing internationally. The comedy scene is growing and I'm really glad to be part of the scene as it grows. Really glad to grow with the scene as well," he said.
On the first day of the Mumbai Comic Con 2025, Shah performed a gig with fellow comic Rohan Joshi, titled "Comic Con Variety Vault: Unpopular Opinions: Sahil Shah and Rohan Joshi". The comedian said they had the time of their life performing at the event on Saturday. " very cool.
We spoke to someone from the 11th standard to someone who's a professor or who's doing engineering. You're meeting like a vast variety of people and it's just fun entertaining them." As "hardcore pop culture geeks", Shah said he and Joshi didn't find it tough to engage the audience.
"We know the shows and movies people are talking about. We know the references that people say. It's quite easy for us then to connect on a pop culture level because at the end of the day we are also fellow geeks.
" He is now looking forward to releasing his second stand-up special called "Broken", which will premiere on his YouTube channel on April 16. "It's about my life. It's about how I feel broken, how I want to be better and all the steps I'm taking to fix myself.
It's deeply personal, emotional, unique and special." The two-day Mumbai Comic Con 2025 will conclude on Sunday. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
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