In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the maledominated comedy industry is transforming into an inclusive space. Anuradha Menon, still recognised for her iconic alter ego Lola Kutty, spends an afternoon with Prashasti Singh, the show stealer from last year’s Comicstaan lineup, and the two women pull back the curtain on inherent biases and the evolving scene. Between generous doses of laughter and nostalgia, Sadaf Shaikh has a frontrow seat for this unexpected yet synergetic interaction.

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I hurry down the corridor of a photo studio in Andheri West in a frantic bid to locate one half of our duo for today’s shoot who, I’m told, is miffed at having had to trek to the suburbs in this inclement weather. It’s a sentiment that I can wholeheartedly empathise with, and I hope to placate her with my own tales of frustrating suburban travels. When I finally (after a few wrong turns) locate her, Anuradha (Anu) Menon good-naturedly extends her lipstick-applying hand to greet me, and I am bemused to discover that the woman I am facing is the polar opposite of Lola Kutty — the iconic character that she came to be synonymous with after the self-titled show first aired in 2004. The comedian’s actual presence is a far cry from the unfiltered and overly dramatic persona she had created for the now-defunct music channel, Channel V. As Menon said in a 2017 Tedx talk, Lola was the very “antithesis of cool” with her oildrenched hair, bespectacled eyes and kanjivaram-clad figure. The woman I meet is in a pantsuit, is gorgeous and eloquent, expertly assuming a British accent to mimic the officials at the embassy responsible for delaying her visa to the UK. All of a sudden, I hear the sound of breaking glass but soon realise that this interruption occurred only within the confines of my own brain; a carefully preserved childhood memory had just been shattered by reality. The 38-year-old comedian is not surprised by my bewildered expression, almost as if she is accustomed to shocking people when she meets them as Anu Menon and not

Cette histoire est tirée de l'édition August - September 2019 de Verve.

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