PL Deshpande to BhaDiPa: Bridging laughs

Along with a theater tradition, dating to more than 100 years, humour has been quite the mainstay of Marathi culture. Literature, films and plays have long engaged the Marathi speaking populace with rib tickling comedy. The duo of Laxmikant Berde and Ashok Saraf and the humorous readings of PL Deshpande and Ram Nagarkar in the 1980's and 90's, all present a rich tradition of touching the funny bone.

"The language, by its nature, is very fluid where one word and phrase means more than one thing. That brings irony and humour naturally. A rich tradition of one-man shows just adds to it," says actor-director of Being Association (theatre group), Rasika Agashe.

However, now, with a digital transition happening, the laughter legacy of the land is also fast changing. With unlimited data at the user's disposal, new experiments in the web series space aim to give a platform to the Marathi community's youth creators and bring back the 'cool quotient' in regional language. Evolved from the earlier days of Pula Deshpande to the current Youtube stars, let's take a look at the changing face of comedy.

Digital party to spread smiles

Three years ago, a trio, Tamilian Anusha, Canadian Paula and Maharashtrian Sarang, grappled with providing unique content for starved Marathi audiences. That gave birth to Bhartiya Digital Party, or BhaDiPa, an online platform which boasts of over four lakh subscribers, with each independent video viewed by millions.

Sarang's chance meeting with Paula at the Toronto Film festival kicked it all off. The latter alerted him (who was cast in Mohit Takalkar's The Bright Day opposite Radhika Apte) how Canada's population was 33 million while Maharashtra's more than 75 million. She alerted him to the potential of a vibrant social media ecosystem for Maharashtra. Several aborted take-offs later, the crying need for contemporary content stared them in the face.

Their first viral comedy web series Casting Couch with Ameya and Nipun starring Ameya Wagh and Nipun Dharmadhikari - a soft roast of a celebrity (Bhau Kadam, Ankush Chaudhari and Radhika Apte) who the duo try to cast for their film. Unwilling to take no for an answer, they pushed their case, even offending the celebrity, leading to much mirth for viewers. At one point, the show was so popular that A-line stars like Kajol, Madhuri, Anurag Kashyap, and others made regular appearances leaving the viewership in millions in all of three years.

Their next - Aaplya Baapachi - tackled street arrogance with episodes on the road (Aaplya Baapacha Rasta), society (Aaplya Baapachi Society) and hotel (Aaplya Bapacha Haatel). However, what gave Bhadipa real momentum was its 'Aai series,' featuring an archaic, and boisterous Marathi dominatrix mom and her kids. The latter love is stretched at her conduct. The result: unbridled raw humour every Marathi could relate to. The six million Facebook views are testimony to runaway hit, even among non-Marathis, which it received organically.

"The viewer, on Youtube, had come of age watching TVF Qtiyapa, AIB and Filtercopy. The USP of these series were that they were quick and easy to consume. They were not getting such content on the regional channels and hence they had to change," says Sarang, founder of BhaDiPa.

For the Marathi audience, watching a standup performance or a comedy play was always a family experience. However, Paula feels that cheap and wide access to the digital platform changed all.

"The platform, the access and cheap data was a complete game changer. The platforms were designed for the individual as compared to the content on other OTT and television platforms," said Paula.

Paula has also pushed the envelope by learning Marathi to be noticed in the scene that she started with her friends. She has her own series called 'Miss Manners che Sanskar Varga', which is a funny take on a Canadian girl conducting etiquette classes for Marathi customs in chaste Marathi. In a perfect case of the personal becoming political, Paula owes the inspiration for this property to her mother who made her watch Miss Manners in Canada as a punishment when she was a teenager.

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Raw, organic and uncensored humour

It was one of the many meetings, two years back, at Marathi film Director Viju Mane's office between Santosh Juvekar and Kushal Badrike's that led to the inception of Marathi's most popular and comedy viral web series - Struggler Saala. The three friends agreed after seeing an episode of BhaDiPa web channel that they had procrastinated on a similar concept for five long years. Now, time was ripe to act. They shot one episode of 'Struggler Sala' in Mane's office.

The premise was simple. Santosh and Kushal, who play film industry strugglers, visit an established director's office and talk him through casting them in one of his projects. What follows is a scripted but a very natural comedy drama that unearths the trials and struggles in an aspiring actor's life.

The first uncensored episode online was an instant rage with subscribers asking for more such content. The makers had no option but to continue shooting. Many known directors in the regional film industry, like Ravi Jadhav, Mahesh Manjrekar, Prasad Oak, Abhijit Panse, and Abhijit Chavan, participated in the various episodes that the team shot.

The next big leap was a meeting with a Marathi family who had arrived from UK. They offered to host the team and sponsor an all-paid-trip to UK with actor Bhau Kadam to shoot an episode of the series. The response in the country was tremendous, so much so that the staged program in distant English suburb in Elford, near London, saw 1,200 people in attendance.

"It was completely unexpected," says founder Viju Mane, "Filmmakers are calling us willing to be in our series to promote their next film. We heard of another film shoot being stopped for half an hour as one of our episodes had released and everyone on the set wanted to watch it," adds Mane.

Feeding on the data energy

The web series are still struggling with their revenue model. Struggler Saala onboarded a clothing brand, which kept raking in the moolah. Also, Mane says that most episodes are no frills ones with a basic three camera setup and some basic lighting. The actors move in and out of the setting like they are acting in a reality show. This is making new watchers wonder whether this is indeed fiction or for real. The shows are completely scripted, however, allowing only a few cursory additions.

"Prior to our experiment, the humour in vogue was very caricaturish, focussing on poor jokes and a lot of body gestures. We thought we shouldn't depart from the natural genre. Hence, we stuck to realistic style of acting and jokes," Mane says.

The Chavat (meaning naughty in Marathi) platform has 3 lakh subscribers in all. Any episode that they make guarantees them 1-2 million watchers.

The funny web series, because of its conversational scripting and more real than real life settings, have even surpassed the urban rural divide of entertainment.

Mane quotes the example of 'Gavakadchya Goshti' (Tales from the rural hinterland), a webseries made by Kori Pati (Empty slate) productions, which is completely made by a group of rural youngsters that became an instant runaway hit.

"This is because of the data revolution. The rural unemployed youth have a lot of data to consume. They cannot afford expensive movie tickets. They also don't relate to chiffon saree-clad saans-bahu soaps at all. We take our Marathi audience for granted. There is a lot of unsatiated hunger of the audience. These series speak a language that they understand," feels Mane.

Now, the discussion enters a bit slippery territory of the uncensored nature of these episodes. However, Mane is on a firm wicket on the issues and likes to bat from the front foot.

"That is how strugglers speak to each other. Their lingo is uncensored and organic. The English movies have so many abuses. Indian audiences heard the c@#$%& word for the first time in Satya. However, now they have got used to it," defends Mane.

"Even women are watching our episodes and they are not feeling awkward. A group of eighteen international school teachers were recently very candid about how much they liked the new genre. We tried to beep all abuses from one episode and got trolled heavily from our watchers. People are interested to know how celebrities talk in real life and do they abuse? We like to keep it as natural as possible," concludes Mane.

Marathi actor and director Rasika Agashe welcomes the new whiff of energy on the web series circuit. However, as an outsider, she has a note of caution.

"I have no issues with using abuses in the content. However, passing off crassness and tasteless delivery as humour can set wrong standards of performance. Web series is an evolving phenomenon and what we dole out now will set standards for the future," opines Agashe.

Funny Lines

Undir sodun amchya gharat saglyat kahi marla jaat asel tar kutuhal (Besides rats, if anything is amply killed in our house is curiosity)
—Sushant Ghadge

South Mumbaichi loka itki English ahet ki bahutek tyani Brexit madhye matdan pal kela asnar (People in Sobo are so English that surely they must have voted for Brexit)
—Sarang

Pendse Kaka, the know all man, knows everything, right from Darwin's theory of evolution to how Ganga got polluted in 'Ram Teri Ganga Maili' movie
—Sushant Ghadge

Making history: Men who immortalised comedy

P L Deshpande

For Marathis, he is the renaissance man. Often reffered to as Pula, he was a writer, humorist, author, composer, and musician. He pioneered the art of Marathi stand up by staging readings of his books Batatyachi Chawl, Purvarang, and Apurvai. Armed with a steel glass and water flask, Pula engaged his audience with his comic timing.

Dada Kondke

Dada Kondke was the quintessential working class hero and a filmmaker. His films were instant hits due to their double meaning humour. However, before making it big in films, Kondke performed in 1,500 shows of the famous folk play 'Vicha Majhi Puri Kara' (Please fulfil my wish). Its slapstick comedy and wit has had a lasting appeal.

Laxmanrao Deshpande

'Varad Nighalay Londonla' is a one-man play, written by Dr Lakshman Deshpande. It tells the story of a village family accepting a British woman as their daughter-in-law. The twist lies in the whole village being taken to London as part of mariage revelry. Dr Deshpande immortalised the play by playing 52 characters alone with minimal props.

Ram Nagarkar

Ram Nagarkar, a comedy artist in the Marathi film industry, immortalised Marathi stand up one act routines with his show 'Ramnagari'. Nagarkar's book, of the same name, was prescribed for college and university students. His humour was observational and it also reflected his family profession, which was that of a barber.

V P Kale

Vasant Purushottam Kale, an architect popularly known as Va Pu, was a Marathi Writer. He wrote more than 60 books. His well-known acts include Partner, Vapurza, Hi Waat Ekatichi, and Thikri. He was a famous storyteller and had over 1,600 shows. He was the first writer to reach out to his Marathi audience via audio cassettes.

Watch out for these faces in marathi 'comedy' circuit

Trupti Khamkar

An extremely expressive comedienne in her mid-thirties, who has already enthralled film-going crowds through her work in Gadhedo and Tumhari Sulu. She sketches an aggressive but, an extremely funny character of a woman in her thirties, who is increasingly coerced by her parents and relatives to get married, while she is struggling to find the right match.

Mandar Bhide

A multilingual comedian. He uses Marathi middle-class settings and situations to spur humour.

Deepika Mhatre

She is one of the most phenomenal entrants in the realm of Marathi and Hindi comedy. An imitation jewelery seller in local trains and a housemaid, Deepika is now a certified stand up comedian. A chance meeting with comedian Aditi Mittal led to Deepika getting her first break. Her humorous take on the narrow mentality of families she works for, exposes class structures in a funny way.

Sushant Ghadge

A new kid on the block. He arrived on the Marathi stand up scene from the One Act Plays circuit in Pune. His expertise lies in sketching day-to-day characters and creating comedy through exaggeration.