Comedian Zakir Khan is all set to return with some cringeworthy poetry, which he says will be so bad that the audience will fall in love with it. Titled Farzi Mushaira, the comedy web show on Amazon miniTV will have him officiate a fake poetry session with several names from the entertainment industry joining him for some harmless fun. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Zakir opens up about what he is up to and how confident he is about not offending anyone. Also read: Ali Fazal, Richa Chadha struggle to cut their extravagant wedding reception cake
“It’s going to be very fake, the fakest poetry you will ever hear. I myself really enjoy cringe poetry a lot. And so do most of my friends. We want this world to know the world of cringe poetry. When you will watch it in a good mood with friends and a paneer roll, you will really like it,” says Zakir with utmost confidence.
Ask him why would anyone actually watching cringe and tad comes the reply, “No, you will watch it. It is so bad that it is good.”
The trailer shows Zakir reciting his favourite fake shayari ‘Chhoti Bachi Ho Kya’. He opened up about working with various talents during the chat with HT, “We try and give them a written piece mostly but they also add a lot of flavour to it. You will lose your mind when you will see Richa Chadha’s episode. She wrote her own shayaris. We have Venus, who was in Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare with us, she also writes her own shayaris. People add on to it and improvise. Most of them are artists, they deal in the game of words. They are very much aware of this world and what sounds right. It’s a very magical space and emotional for us to come together and do this. We want to make more and more episodes.”
But Zakir as a person claims to be not that fake as the fake poetry he promise to bring in his new show. On being asked about what’s fake about him, he says, “I try to be a consistent person, I am same on stage and same in life. There is no voice or mode change or a different personality when I go on stage. You are a purest form of yourself when you are on stage.”
For someone who has been on the comedy scene since a decade, inviting trouble due to jokes is still not a way of life. When we ask him if he calculates his jokes to avoid legal trouble or controversy, he asks us in return, “I think comedy industry is going through the exact crisis what journalism is going through. Tell me how you are dealing with it, I will deal with it the same way.”
Zakir is confident there is no controversial poetry on his show and they will not end up offending people. Even if someone gets offended, he will simply say “I am sorry” and not contest the issue at all. “I am a zero conflict person,” he says.
Zakir is a college dropout who shot to fame in 2012 after winning the title of ‘India’s Best Stand Up’ on Comedy Central. The 35-year-old Sitar player is “very happy” with his 10 year-long journey as a comedian. “I have learnt every day. Things I had learnt yesterday are part of me now. I am not the same person I was yesterday. I have grown and evolved myself every day. I was young and innocent before,” he says.