Comedian and actor Vir Das gained international recognition when he won the International Emmy Award for his Netflix special Vir Das: The Landing. He was the first Indian comedian to achieve this honor. When he returned to India, he had an interesting interaction with airport security staff, explaining to them that the trophy was not just an idol but an award. Das shared this exchange on his social media account.
Vir shared that the Bengaluru airport security staff stopped him and noticed a pointed object in his luggage, asking him about the idol. He then posted the entire conversation on his X account.
Vir wrote, “Bengaluru airport security. Officer: Bag me murti hai? (Your bag has a statue?) Me: sir Puruskar hai (Sir, it’s an award) Officer: acha. Is me ke sharp Point hai? (Ok. Is it sharp?) Me: sir sharp nahi hai. Uska pankh hai. (No, but it has wings.) Officer: acha acha. Dikhaiye. (Ok, show me) I open the bag. He looks at the award. Lifts it up. It’s not sharp. Officer: accha hai. Badhai ho. Kya karte ho? (Congratulations. What do you do?) Me: Comedian sir. Joke sunata hoon. (I am a comedian. I share jokes.) Him: joke ke liye puruskar milte hain? (Does one get an award for jokes also?) Me: mujhko bhi ajeeb laga sir. (I felt strange too sir!) We both laugh. I put it back in the bag. I head to my flight.”
Earlier, the comedian thanked his audience for their support upon winning the award, dedicating it to India and the art of comedy. He wrote on Instagram, “For India. For Indian comedy. Every breath, every word. Thank you to the @iemmys for this incredible honour.”
In an interview with PTI, Vir commented on his big win, saying, “The job is to take the beautiful chosen people of the world and humanise them a little bit by making an idiot out of myself… I hope we all just get sillier and continue to be fools. I’m underslept. The phone has been going a little insane. But I’m just grateful. I don’t think anything has fully sunk in yet. Luckily, I have a long flight back to India to process all of it.”