News Meet Danish Sait, the man winning over COVID-19 lockdown with his wit

[Shivam]

He couldn’t have asked for a more captive audience. When actor Danish Sait started replaying his phone conversations with friends just a week into the first lockdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, little did he know he was unleashing viral content that would catapult him to the peak of the curve.

 

[Shivam]

When the whole world, at least those privileged to have a comfortable couch and a good wifi connection, was sitting at home with only the bare essentials and glued to their phone screens for the better part of their waking hours, Danish Sait engineered a most charming coup.

Whether it was learning about ‘atmanirbhar’ in Prime Minister’s speech before Lockdown 4.0 or discussing the ‘dhadaam’ sonic boom in Bangalore that shook Twitter, to resumption of domestic flights where flight attendant Priya mopped up a stylish hairdo, Danish’s minute-long improvisations of unique characters and different situations were fast, timely, and most importantly, made some, like me, roll on the floor laughing. Such has been the virality of his content over Twitter and Instagram that people are posting quizzes about their favourite props and characters on social media. And by far the most popular character has been the good-for-nothing Bevarsi Kudka. Danish’s version of ‘vocal for local’, perhaps!

 

[Shivam]

Comic timing Talk about being at the right place at the right time. Just two days before the lockdown was announced, Danish was meant to fly to Mumbai to be with his sister Kubra Sait, herself a well-known actor. The fact that he was alone the whole time allowed him to be on the phone, having a dozen-odd conversations with his friends. “And I realised all the conversations were about the same things,” Danish tells me in a talk we had last week over a video call. ‘Dude, this corona,’ ‘Macha, what da, this lockdown’ -- everyone from the posh lady of the house to the household help were pretty much discussing the same things." You know when something is a big success? When marketers come calling for product placements. And Danish by all means has accomplished that milestone.

For Danish, success could not have come at a more opportune time. A new web series on Amazon Prime based on his hit Kannada movie, Humble Politician Nograj, is all set to be out soon. His RCB Insider with Mr Nags is very popular. “In the past two years, different people have come along with me on this journey, and the snowball gets bigger and bigger,” he says.