East India Comedy, from left, Sapan Verma, Sahil Shah and Sorabh Pant. Courtesy East India Comedy
East India Comedy, from left, Sapan Verma, Sahil Shah and Sorabh Pant. Courtesy East India Comedy
East India Comedy, from left, Sapan Verma, Sahil Shah and Sorabh Pant. Courtesy East India Comedy
East India Comedy, from left, Sapan Verma, Sahil Shah and Sorabh Pant. Courtesy East India Comedy

East India Comedy troupe become a YouTube hit after skewering Bollywood flops

Youtube comedians East India Comedy will perform their new show EIC vs Bollywood where they humour the worst Hindi films of 2015 at AKS Nights at Emirates Towers Dubai on Friday

Afshan Ahmed

April 06, 2016

  • English
  • Arabic

Bollywood producers have long been accused of putting commercially driven senseless plots ahead of good ­storytelling.

Shah Rukh Khan's critically panned box office blockbuster Dilwale, for example, was declared worst film of 2015 at this week's Golden Kela Awards.

While disappointed cinemagoers can do little but complain about wasted time and money, an Indian comedy troupe has found opportunity in Bollywood’s failure.

East India Comedy — which was founded in 2012 and features Sorabh Pant, Sahil Shah and Sapan Verma — hosts a YouTube channel with 337,000 followers. They have created mercilessly witty and opinionated sketches that amusingly illustrate bad Hindi-film reviews from last year.

They will be performing as part of the AKS Nights at Emirates Towers on Friday. Verma says they have no qualms about naming and shaming bad films and filmmakers.

What’s is in store for the UAE audience?

aWe are going to diss all of the horrible Bollywood movies that came out last year. The idea is that it's us versus Bollywood and we divide the movies into categories. There's one where we compare Bollywood action films to Hollywood action movies. Sorabh will be rating the children of movie stars who are actors, and we will be giving our two cents on some of the worst songs. I will be joking about plagiarism — did you know Prem Ratan Dhan Payo had a scene copied from Game of Thrones?

So a bad year in Bollywood means a fantastic year for EIC?

Yes, every year 60 per cent of Bollywood films are horrible and 40 per cent are great. Our aim with the show is not to downgrade the industry — we also acknowledge the good movies, such as Talvar, Piku and Badlapur. But there are always some directors who never disappoint when it comes to giving the audience a bad film — such as Sajid Khan.

With the concern about intolerance in India, does it take much to offend people?

I think it’s more the case with content we put online than our offline shows. We can never tell who is watching our content. People tend to get offended online easily. You could have said the nicest thing, but you will find someone to hate you for it. We don’t let it bother us because comedy is about sharing an opinion backed by logical facts, and there will always be an audience for it.

There has been a recent boom of YouTube comedians in India. Is it becoming saturated?

India still has only 40 or so big comedians, compared with the thousands in the United States and United Kingdom. There is a lot of potential and work to go around. I think the younger generation are realising that this needn’t be a hobby and that you can make a career in comedy.

How do you want the comedy scene to develop in India?

There is a need for more venues for comedy, not just in India but Dubai, too. A lot of the comedy happens at bars and restaurants or hired halls. What we need is more comedy clubs.

• EIC vs Bollywood by AKS Nights is at Emirates Towers on Friday from 8pm. Tickets start at Dh100 at www.platinumlist.net. Check out EIC at www.youtube.com/user/EastIndiaComedy

aahmed@thenational.ae

While you're here
While you're here
Scoreline

Bournemouth 2

Wilson 70', Ibe 74'

Arsenal 1

Bellerin 52'

Winners

Ballon d’Or (Men’s)
Ousmane Dembélé (Paris Saint-Germain / France)

Ballon d’Or Féminin (Women’s)
Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona / Spain)

Kopa Trophy (Best player under 21 – Men’s)
Lamine Yamal (Barcelona / Spain)

Best Young Women’s Player
Vicky López (Barcelona / Spain)

Yashin Trophy (Best Goalkeeper – Men’s)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City / Italy)

Best Women’s Goalkeeper
Hannah Hampton (England / Aston Villa and Chelsea)

Men’s Coach of the Year
Luis Enrique (Paris Saint-Germain)

Women’s Coach of the Year
Sarina Wiegman (England)

Key figures in the life of the fort

Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.

Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.

Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.

Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.

Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.

Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae

If you go...

Etihad Airways flies from Abu Dhabi to Kuala Lumpur, from about Dh3,600. Air Asia currently flies from Kuala Lumpur to Terengganu, with Berjaya Hotels & Resorts planning to launch direct chartered flights to Redang Island in the near future. Rooms at The Taaras Beach and Spa Resort start from 680RM (Dh597).

UAE%20v%20West%20Indies
%3Cp%3EFirst%20ODI%20-%20Sunday%2C%20June%204%20%0D%3Cbr%3ESecond%20ODI%20-%20Tuesday%2C%20June%206%20%0D%3Cbr%3EThird%20ODI%20-%20Friday%2C%20June%209%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EMatches%20at%20Sharjah%20Cricket%20Stadium.%20All%20games%20start%20at%204.30pm%0D%3Cbr%3E%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20squad%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EMuhammad%20Waseem%20(captain)%2C%20Aayan%20Khan%2C%20Adithya%20Shetty%2C%20Ali%20Naseer%2C%20Ansh%20Tandon%2C%20Aryansh%20Sharma%2C%20Asif%20Khan%2C%20Basil%20Hameed%2C%20Ethan%20D%E2%80%99Souza%2C%20Fahad%20Nawaz%2C%20Jonathan%20Figy%2C%20Junaid%20Siddique%2C%20Karthik%20Meiyappan%2C%20Lovepreet%20Singh%2C%20Matiullah%2C%20Mohammed%20Faraazuddin%2C%20Muhammad%20Jawadullah%2C%20Rameez%20Shahzad%2C%20Rohan%20Mustafa%2C%20Sanchit%20Sharma%2C%20Vriitya%20Aravind%2C%20Zahoor%20Khan%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Priyanka ChopraOn Stage