In January, comedian Jo Koy bombed while performing a monologue at the Golden Globe Awards. “Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue? Shut up!” Koy went on to blame his writers, saying, “I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.” The host faced poor reviews, but he has also been supported by other comedians (for example Tina Fey) who have said that awards show crowds can be notoriously difficult to win over. Koy may have been redeemed by his peers but he probably left show-writers doing their best impression of the “Mujhe kyu toda?” meme. If the room is tough for performers, it must be hard to write jokes for it too, right?

We decided to catch up with comedian Vidushi Swaroop—who was part of the writer’s room for the 69th Hyundai Filmfare Awards—to find out about just how hard it can be. This was the first time Swaroop—who is also the founder and coordinator of Jaipur Comedy Club—had ever written for an awards show. Read on to find out everything about how she landed the gig, the joke writing process and even how writers help hosts perform on the day of the show. 

HOW DID YOU LAND THE GIG?

It was not in my wildest dreams that I would get this chance. I come from a very small village where there are bulls and cows on the road. Humaare yaha pe toh koi soch bhi nahi sakta tha. I’m the first one from my gaon to get out and go to the city to study. It happened because I was good at academics, and then I completely shifted to a different career. 

I got this gig because I came to Bombay for an internship. I was working in Delhi and I had a nice paying job but I got a chance to be the assistant writer for Taaza Khabar season 2 with ADHD Studios which is run by Abbas and Hussain Dalal. They knew me because of my work for The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. I came here for Taaza Khabar, and writing for [the Filmfare Awards] was very different. So, ADHD Studios worked on the awards and because I was already in their writers’ room and I was a comedian, the job of gag-writing for the awards came to me. I was also allowed a budget with which I could hire someone to work with. I hired another comedian from Jaipur with whom I have a nice camaraderie and we used to jam a lot, his name is Pankaj Ramnani. 

WHAT’S THE WRITING PROCESS FOR AN AWARDS SHOW LIKE?

Pankaj and I were the gag-writing team. Toh jitne bhi gag add karne hain, jitne bhi jokes add karne hain, voh saara kaam hum dono ka tha. Phir aatein hai Aditya Merchant, who is an assistant writer at ADHD Studios. He was writing links for each award, for example, “Dekho Gujarat, tumhara gyaan kidhar hai, tumhara hero idhar hai,” for when Varun Dhawan is entering the stage. Then there’s Hussain Hardhawala, who was writing brand integration. Yeh saare drafts hum sab likhte the aur phir in sab ko proof-read, usmein kuch add karna hai vagera, yeh sab head-writer Abbas Dalal karte the. We used to write the drafts, and if he liked any of them he would directly send it to the creative director, or he would make his own changes and then send it ahead. Then we would get feedback from the creative director’s team and then the changes would be applied accordingly. 

The creative director decides everything. For example, what the sequence of acts is, what the lineup of actors is, which gag will go when, what script each actor will receive. Then there’s the assistant creative director who coordinates with us, because the creative director is coordinating with all the departments, like the production department, the dance department. Dharma Productions produced the awards, so they hired the creative director. We required her approval, and then she would need the approval of the Times Group and then we would also need to run everything we needed actors to perform by them.  

I come from a standup comedy background; we only use words on stage, we don’t use props or other people on stage to make our jokes land. We just write funny jokes. It’s a room in which people are there to listen to our jokes. 

WHAT IS GAG WRITING? 

It’s the toughest kind of writing for the show. It’s something any comedian should try and do if they want to feel that they’re un-funny. The instant feedback for everything you write is, “This is not funny at all.” Initially, I was getting depressed thinking, “Am I wrong? I don’t know funny at all, why am I not getting it?” Then on the day of the event, I understood why the creative director was shooting down the ideas. I realised that everything is done in a visual medium here. Jokes won’t land at all. I have to think of jokes visually. And I come from a standup comedy background; we only use words on stage, we don’t use props or other people on stage to make our jokes land. We just write funny jokes. It’s a room in which people are there to listen to our jokes. 

But on TV, when the jokes come, Mummy will be in the kitchen and will come to watch jab voh uske saath jayega kuch karne, because a visual medium is what will capture the audience. Humne bahut saare gags likhe the, but the one that really worked was a sketch about Devdas which was actually about Dev-chaas, where Devdas is addicted to chaas and he was roaming around with a chaas ka bottle. All these visual things worked very well and made everyone laugh. Regular jokes went in passing, because no one practiced them, and no one was trying to land a punchline. They’re simply reading it off of the teleprompter. 

DO THE ACTORS HAVE A PART IN APPROVING THE JOKES YOU WRITE?

They’re the worst and the best (laughs). Pehle ke zamaane mein aisa hota tha ki saare actors kar dete the kyunki itna cancel culture nahi tha, itna meme culture aur trolling nahi tha. Toh people used to go out of the way to perform the jokes. Abhi, everybody is so concerned and very cautious about it, so nobody wants to do anything and they’re very skeptical and afraid of hurting their image. It was so tough!

Puraane awards dekhenge toh Shah Rukh Khan ladki banke stage pe aa raha hai, and yes the jokes are sometimes crass and none of them would agree to do this stuff in 2024. That was a huge hassle. In fact, one actor made us do nearly eight versions of a gag before the show and eventually the gag didn’t even happen! If inse approval aa gaya toh ho gaya, par usmein bhi ho sakta hai ki show vaale din voh mana kar de. Aapne dus gag likh diya aur eventually 1 gag hi ho, yeh bhi bahut badi baat hai.

WERE THERE THINGS YOU WEREN’T ALLOWED TO JOKE ABOUT?

There’s nothing we can joke about! Most jokes don’t work, most jokes get cut! Also, this was the first time I’ve written for an awards show aur mere ko bas thoda fomo hua ki voh zamana jab… I think maine ek gag dekha tha jab Shah Rukh (Khan) ka ek sketch tha jismein usko mic ki aadat lag gayi thi. He was addicted to mics. And I thought that was such a fun gag. And it’s not like I can’t think of those things, it’s just that koi actor time nahi dega. Voh pre-recorded gag tha. Matlab, Shah Rukh Khan shoot pe aaya, teen location pe usne shoot kiye, aur voh sketch show mein play ho raha hai. So I had major fomo, and I wish I could’ve been in a writing room during that time. Imagine a sketch jismein Sunny Deol ka dhai kilo ka haath humesha use ho raha hai. I really wanted to do that but we didn’t have the time.

WAS THERE A PARTICULAR JOKE THAT YOU WERE PROUD OF?

I think there was this gag that I liked, and I don’t know if it worked or not, but humara ek regional gag tha jismein hum regional filmon ko recreate kar rahe the. Karan Johar aake bolta tha ki maine filmon ke rights khareed liye hain aur ab Filmfare pe scene ki shooting karenge; aisa karke ek gag tha. Toh yeh har bhasha mein karna tha, okay? Toh ek Punjabi vaala tha—jo hua hi nahi—jismein Tripti Dimri aur Varun Dhawan the. Dhawan aa karke English gaana band kar deta hai toh voh bolti hai ki, “Ek Punjabi gaane di keemat tussi ki jaano Parvinder babuji, ki angreji ladkiyon ka rojgaar hota hai ek Punjabi gaana. Kabhi dil jeet toh kabhi deep prapt hota hai ek Punjabi gaana,” aisa kuch karke tha aur bahut ache tareeke se likha tha, but I realised that it wasn’t visual, toh voh hua hi nahi. 

WERE YOU WRITING JOKES AND GAGS DURING THE SHOW AS WELL?

Yeah, yeah. For example, Ayushmaan (Khurana) and Karan (Johar) will be on stage and Abbas will be giving them jokes that Pankaj and I were thinking up on the spot and relaying to him. Hum joke sochte hai and we will tell him ki, “yeh joke hai, yeh moment create kar sakte hai. Yeh poochna, iska jawab jab aata hai celebrity se toh funny moment ban jayega.” I’m speaking into Abbas’ ear, and he’s speaking into theirs.

WHICH CELEBRITY WAS THE BEST AT EXECUTING YOUR WRITING?

Manish Paul! Jaise hi woh stage pe gaya, he was such a performer! Woh uss time kuch bhi karne ko taiyaar tha. He has a comedian’s spirit! Karan Johar was also nice. He was lots of fun and was ready to perform our script and approved it in one go. 

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WRITING FOR CELEBRITIES AT AN AWARDS SHOW AND WRITING FOR YOURSELF?

It’s very difficult because ek toh ego hai, which is only human but mere ko aisa lagta hai personally, jo ek baar Prashasti (Singh) ne baat kari thi, jo mujhe bahut samajh mein aayi. She said comedians ka problem yeh hai ki unko template nahi samajh mein aata hai. But jab unko ek baar template samajh mein aata hai—kisi taraf ke writing ka—uske baad woh kuch bhi likh sakhte hain. And that’s so true. Jab tak mujhe samajh mein nahi aaya tha ki “visual” aur “moment” ka game hai, tab tak mushkil tha. 

I would write great jokes [for the awards] and they would all be rejected. Aur mujhe lage mere mein problem hai, mai un-funny hoon. Acha likhne ka koi matlab nahi hai jab edit mein yeh part kat jayega. Teleprompter pe jab Ayushmaan Khurana padhega, woh joke land nahi hoga. 

For example, my creative director told me that agar tumne bola ki mai bottle phek ke marunga, aur tumne sach mein bottle phudwa diya, aur socho woh screen pe aa gaya, aur Mouni Roy Ranbir Kapoor ke sar pe bottle phek rahi hai toh kitna acha visual hoga! That visual will look great when it is used in a “Coming Up Next” transition. When I got to know that, then I understood. 

Mereko ek baar samajh mein aana tha ki joke ko mai ek layer dumb-down karu, toh usko teen layer dumb-down karo. Jitna zyada dumb-down kar sakte ho na, karna chahiye. And it’s not that it is easy to write these, inko likhne mein mehenat hoti hai, par yeh baat samajhne hai, kyunki iska audience bahut mass-y hai. Geeta from Gorakhpur is watching these awards. She hasn’t watched standup. Unko nahi pata hai ki misdirection use karke koi badhiya sa punchline banaya hai. Aapko bahut simple karna hai. 

ARE THERE THINGS YOU CAN TAKE FROM THIS EXPERIENCE THAT YOU CAN APPLY TO YOUR JOKE-WRITING?

I hope that doesn’t happen. My comedy will be ruined! But, first of all, everyone’s comedy is different. Meri comedy bilkul aisi nahi hai jaha mai bahut zyada logon ko impress karne ki chakkar mein hu. I do ad-writing, I do dialogue drafts, I do screenplays. Standup is one thing jo mujhe yaad dilata hai ki mujhe kya karna hai. It’s my sanity. 

DID YOU LIKE ATTENDING THE SHOW?

It was fun. During the show, sabse zyada khaali aur unnecessary insaan hote hai writers. Kyunki unka saara kaam ho gaya hai na. Teleprompter pe chali gayi script, ab show shuru hone ka wait karna hai. Sab log walkie-talkie lekar ghum rahe hai, daud rahe hai, hum log kya kare? Humaara koi kaam hi nahi hai. Agar humaare paas all-access identity card nahi hota na? The bodyguards were so suspicious of us. We kept going on the green carpet. Paparazzi ko baar-baar surprise de rahe hai ki, “Yeh kaun hai?” We were having so much fun and we were so mesmerised by this world.