If you love scrolling through Instagram reels, odds are you’ve come across Pranit More’s relatable takes on cricket and Bollywood films. The comedian recently hit the 2,00,000 follower milestone on Instagram and is going strong dropping jokes about topical content. From the T20 World Cup to the Ambani wedding, nothing is off of More’s radar. But he’s got more to offer than just quick fixes.

The comedian has been touring the country with two shows. He’s doing a 28-city tour of his Hindi-language standup comedy show titled Baap Ko Mat Sikha. And for all his fans in Maharashtra, More has developed the Marathi-language hour Marathi Mulga. The comedian has only just started testing the waters with this new material but has received a positive response from his fans. He’s looking forward to the rise of regional comedy and doing more shows in the state. More also told us that he’s ready to drop his first Marathi crowd work video during the first week of July. Scroll through to read what the comedian has to say about his latest show and how comedy will evolve in the country!

What’s the show about?

It’s like my usual story-telling show. I have 2-3 stories about growing up in a Maharashtrian household and my school life. And the rest of it is crowd work. There is one story from Baap Ko Mat Sikha that I do in Marathi Mulga as well. But then there are some stories about growing up in a Maharashtrian household that work only in this show. There’s a slightly dark bit that is very specific to Maharashtrian audiences. It’s a 70-80 minute show out of which 60 percent is written material and the rest is audience interaction.

How did you workshop this material? Are there regional language open mics where you can test the material?

Marathi open mics are very few. They are almost non-existent you can say. There might be one a month or something where I go and perform. But when I perform in Mumbai, I end up mixing in some Marathi content because more or less everybody understands the language here. I’ll give a reference or translate one of my Marathi jokes and do it in Hindi to see if it works. Whenever you’re doing a joke in a language you’re more comfortable in, it ends up doing well in my opinion. So that’s how I test my material.

Why did you decide to call the show ‘Marathi Mulga’?

See, there was no specific idea behind calling the show Marathi Mulga. I just needed a name to differentiate between my Hindi and Marathi shows. So I went with this name.

How did you decide to do a Marathi standup show?

So, we used to Marathi standup back when we started. At that point of time, the plan was always to push regional-language comedy. But unfortunately back then not a lot of people came for Marathi standup. But once I started drawing an audience for my Hindi shows, people guessed that I’m Maharashtrian because of my surname. They started messaging me to do Marathi standup. So I thought I’ll give it a shot.

Where have you performed ‘Marathi Mulga’ so far? How was the response?

The first couple of Marathi shows went well. Then we started doing shows in places where nobody had performed standup. Like, Dhule, Chandrapur, Jalgaon. In some of these cities we had to do two shows because the first one was sold out. The plan was to perform in cities where comedians don’t go but people appreciate the art. There are places where we would love to perform but there aren’t good venues. So the plan now is to do a full Marathi show and tour the state with it. We did a small one during the summer. But because I also do standup in Hindi, it becomes a little difficult to divide a tour. But now the plan is to do perform Marathi Mulga even during the weekdays. That way I can manage both tours.

Out of Hindi and Marathi, which language do you enjoy doing standup in more?

Obviously I enjoy performing in Marathi because that’s the language I grew up talking. It’s also because I think in Marathi. But I’ve also been doing standup in Hindi for almost 7-8 years now. So I’m a little better there but I have more fun with Marathi. Because there are some thoughts and jokes that get lost in translation. So yes, my hold over comedy is better in Hindi but I’ll slowly get to that point in Marathi as well.

Do you think the audience for Marathi standup comedy is growing?

I feel like the numbers will increase with time and to be honest, they already are. Things have changed drastically since we first started doing standup comedy. It’s a little gradual because people understand both Marathi and Hindi. And because there are more Hindi acts, the audience gets divided. But slowly we are getting the numbers. They put up stories and tell their friends to go check out the show which in turn increases the growth organically. For example, when we did our first show in Kolhapur we got a decent response. But the second time we sold twice the number of tickets. Recently we did a show in Ahmednagar and we sold so many tickets there wasn’t enough place for people to sit. The culture is building slowly. But standup comedians also have to look beyond the metropolitan areas and pay attention to these cities. The more performers there are the more the audience will grow. That’s how standup comedy will evolve in the country.

What are your plans with your Marathi standup comedy?

So, I’ve written a lot of stories in Marathi previously. But I haven’t done much comedy in the language. So slowly I want to build my confidence by performing more in that language. I’m also thinking of doing a dark joke series in Marathi. Nobody is doing anything of the sort. That’s because there aren’t too many Maharashtrian comedians or a wide enough audience to experiment with. But I like to try out new things. I’m also dropping my first Marathi crowd work video soon. So, the plan is to give the audience material that they haven’t seen before in Marathi.