Comedy on the small screen has been dominated by Kapil Sharma. The comedian-host has held the prime spot every weekend for years now. Even after his break last year, he returned with a bang. Despite Kapil’s domination, stand-up comedian Amit Tandon is all set to carve a niche for himself with Good Night India. The show is set to air on SonySab, from Monday to Saturday.
Amit has been in the comedy business for a while now. Having started comedy as a hobby in 2010, his popularity grew with his acts and YouTube videos. He even bagged a Netflix special in 2020. With Good Night India, Amit is exploring the world of television. Despite the platform being out of his comfort zone, Amit gets candid with News18 about the show, performing on television, trolls and the future of comedy.
Good Night India’s show timing and concept reminded me of Jaspal Bhatti’s shows from the 90s. Is yours outlined on similar grounds?
I have always been inspired by Jaspal Bhatti ji. Even when we did our earlier show, Chalo Koi Baat Nahi, a lot of the inspiration was from Jaspal Bhatti ji. But yes, I think you’re getting the right vibe. The purpose is to create a show which the entire family can watch together and relate to it. Whether it is a seven-year-old kid or a 70-year-old grandfather, they should be able to watch it together and enjoy it together.
In the show, we will have people and celebrities coming in as performers. We had Kavita Kaushik recently. These people will perform a five to seven-minute set which will give you a different perspective of their lives.
This show also has a vibe of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. What do you have to say about that?
I am not worried about comparisons. Even if the comparisons happen, I am okay with it. But in this format, there’s no judging happening. Everybody that we are bringing in is a friend, is someone that I know in this circuit and we are just sitting there and watching like audience. That’s how it will be a little different. We are focusing on storytelling than on performance-based act.
Currently, Kapil Sharma has dominates the comedy genre on television. Do you think there will be comparisons?
If somebody compares me with Kapil Sharma, I’ll take it as a compliment because the kind of experience that he brings in is way more than the amount of work that I have done. Any comparison of that sort of it happens, it is a big compliment for me. But I don’t think there’s a need to compare because everything can co-exist. There’s always going to be dearth of humour even if we have 10 shows. It will be good if we have more shows in this domain and people are given a chance to perform. For me, it is a big compliment if somebody compares this show with The Kapil Sharma Show, but I don’t see the comparison as yet. I think that all of these shows are bringing in more humour. The more the merrier.
SonySab has always been known for its prime-time comedy shows. Do you think there’s a sense of pressure to draw audiences post-prime time?
I was not working on this show with that pressure, I was getting a great green room where I was getting to meet my friends, comedians, and get to watch the best of performances from the front seats. I have no clue about how other shows are doing (TRP wise). I do know that there are other shows like Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah that are still the most-watched shows right now on television. But I have not thought of it as pressure to bring in more audience.
A number of comedians have been trolled, received death threats and whatnot in recent years. What is your take on that?
That’s bound to happen. In every creative industry, we have different schools of thought. Even in Bollywood, we’ve had that in the last few years where people have been beaten up, people have gone through different scenarios, movies have been held up. In the creative field, everybody brings in their own experiences and opinions. So I think it is more to do with the law of the land than anything else. I have not faced issues (of trolling and threats) so far so my experience in this is limited.
What does the future of comedy look like to you?
The future of comedy looks very bright. We see lot of different people coming in and bringing their stories which we’ve also tried to do with this show. We’ve consciously tried to get voices of different people of different regions. We are also bringing in people who are into humour and are into professions also so we’re getting a doctor, a pilot, an ex-armed force person, housewife, college student, all the different kind of cities from India on the show. Overall in humour, there’s a big, bright future.
