‘We Wrote Pushpavalli Season 3, We Know What Happened’: Sumaira Shaikh On Cliffhanger Ending

While fans will have to wait and see if Amazon Prime Video and the team of Pushpavalli return with a third season, fans can watch Sumaira on the platform with her stand-up special Dongri Danger. The one-hour comedy piece is based on her personal life experiences of growing up in the area. The concept of the show came about after she wanted to explore a little more about the area she comes from.

“I am doing stand-up since 2016. Earlier, I wanted to do stand-up because I was funny and I wanted people to know that. At that time, the comedy scene was still growing. Now it is very different from 2016. So I started doing stand-up there. Me being from Dongri, like my experiences and getting a little more personal on stage happened a little later because in 2017 my brother passed away so that was a life-changing incident and after that, I just became little… I wanted to do comedy but I wanted to a little bit more about my personal stuff and that’s what you’ll see in the Dongri Danger so that also prompted me to explore a little more about where I come from,” she said.

Sumaira added that it was Sumukhi who encouraged her to talk about her personal experiences, present her unique perspective since she comes from such a unique background. Like most comedians, Sumaira too had her share of hurdles during her journey. She remembered the comedy being male-driven and only a handful of female comedians holding the ground in the space when she joined. While the space has changed drastically since Sumaira noted that it is still difficult for female comedians to find an audience.

“When I started out, our colleagues were all male comics, most of them in Mumbai but now it is changed, from 2016 to now because more and more female comedians are starting out. In terms of hurdles, the biggest hurdle is the amount of time it takes for the audience to find you. When men put out a video, first of all, they’ve been doing this longer than women so they are more prepared to put things out also. At least they were and now things are getting a little bit better. More of them are out there and more of them get their audiences faster because audiences relate to the material they are putting out. I think for women (comedians), it just takes time (for the audiences) to get used to that women can also be funny. So that’s one of the hurdles, at least for me and I will take it slow. The only thing you can keep doing is keep putting things out and you can encourage as many women comedians there are to put themselves out and claim the space and make the audiences familiar with the idea that there are female comics as well and their material is also available online,” she said.