Glow up, please

2026 is looking good for Vir Das. He's directing a movie, touring, crafting new comedy. It can get even better, he believes. Less GRWM, more cuddling; less AI, more IRL moments. Here's what he's manifesting in the New Year

- Kritika Kapoor

Whatever your 2025 was like, Vir Das's was probably better. In July, the 46-year-old comedian released a Netflix special, Fool Volume. In November, he released his memoir, The Outsider. In between, quietly, Das was also making a movie — his first as a director. He's kicking off 2026 with the spy caper, Happy Patel, co-directed with Kavi Shastri and produced by Aamir Khan.

What perfect timing! India is in its spy era. You're either a fan of Dhurandhar's blood, brawn and chest-thumping, or aggressively not. We're in the middle of YRF's cinematic universe: Superstars playing RAW agents who either go rogue or keep getting dragged out of retirement for One Last Mission. The movies are glossy, high-octane, shot in exotic locations and kinda same-same. SRK has been Pathaan, Salman Khan has been Tiger, Hrithik Roshan has been Agent Kabir, Alia Bhatt is in Alpha. Keyboard critics have been having fierce debates about how the genre has become a space for jingoism, macho posturing and formulaic plotting.

Happy Patel wants nothing to do with any of it. Except to spoof it. The trailer opens with the song, Main Hoon Alpha Male. It also features Das, squeezing mayonnaise out of his nipples, which tells you everything you need to know about the film. "It's the kind of movie that makes you happy, not angry," he says. Das wrote the film years ago, but its time is now. "The counterculture can't exist until the culture does," he says. "This goes completely against the mainstream." His spy, Happy Patel, is not cool. He does not have his life together. He is, by design, "a complete idiot". "We've seen enough spies who have their shit together," says Das. "But most people with a sense of humour don't. And they don't take life so seriously."