LETTY MARIAM ABRAHAM letty. abraham@ mid- day. com How do you rope in five celebrities from different walks of life and convince them to give a go at stand- up comedy uninhibitedly? Itu2019s easier said than done, believes Sapan Verma, who spent four years on his brainchild, One Mic Stand, graduated from the storyboard to an Amazon Prime Video offering. u201c I donu2019t think the comedy scene was evolved enough to pull off a show like One Mic Stand. We didnu2019t have [ lavish] budgets on the Internet, [ until a few years ago],u201d he explains.

With Shashi Tharoor, Taapsee Pannu, Richa Chadha, Bhuvan Bam and Vishal Dadlani as part of the line- up, the stand- up comic pulled off a casting coup with the maiden edition. Mention that Tharoor was a revelation on the show, and Verma says the politicianu2019s willingness to try his hand at comedy took him by surprise. u201c While I had known [ the other participants] from before, I had never met Shashi Tharoor.