Stand-up comedian Surabhi Vanzara has had a long television career, with acclaimed shows such as Qubool Hai and Bade Achhe Lagte Hain to her credit. She recently appeared on Samay Raina’s reality show India’s Got Latent, where her remark to the comedian went viral: “Meeting you is not easy, Samay. It’s quite mentally disturbing.” In an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Surabhi opened up about how life changed for her after the episode.

Talking about going viral after India’s Got Latent, Surabhi shared, “It’s the same woman that they’ve (the audience) known for a very long time. Some people choose to remember, some people choose to forget, and that’s fine. I am what I am, before Latent, after Latent. It has been crazy after the show,;it’s a lot of fun. The attention and love that I am getting is lovely. I am just a housewife and a stand-up comedian.”

Asked whether she had expected this level of attention, Surabhi replied, “Nobody was prepared for this level of thing. Everybody knew the power of Latent but overnight suddenly Instagram is going to blow up like this, they’re going to talk about my previous work, which I didn’t expect. In fact, I was bracing myself, and I told Samay, ‘I have done so much of the party work for you. Your fans are going to kill me; they are going to troll the daylights out of me’, which is also something that has happened. There is a lot of trolling that has happened because of the things that I said. People love Samay like anything. In fact, there was a banter, a cheekier banter, which he edited out. Probably, if he had kept that, people would have brought me down because I have said such naughty things to him. I told him, ‘People are going to give me gaalis yaar, Samay. They love you.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll balance it out.’”

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Surabhi Vanzara on fearing an FIR after her India Got Latent 2 appearance

India’s Got Latent has faced legal scrutiny in the past. When prodded if she feared attracting an FIR, Surabhi Vanzara said, “Fear of FIR was not there because I knew that I would be walking the straight line but, of course, I was nervous because the stage was so big, and the show is even bigger now, and there’s a huge live audience there. As a comedian, I’m used to getting my first laugh within 15 seconds, and then I own the stage – but that didn’t happen. When I said that I work in a joint Gujarati family as a housewife, I usually get my laugh but I didn’t get it, and I developed cold feet. I thought, ‘I have lost the audience now but I will finish this.’ It was my muscle memory that kept me going there for those 90 seconds because I was panicking, ‘Oh, the performance is gone,’ but I got it back with the banter.”

Surabhi Vanzara opens up about her mental health

While her appearance on India’s Got Latent 2 brought Surabhi Vanzara considerable attention and appreciation, she revealed that she had been battling anxiety before the episode. Surabhi shared, “Just before Latent, I went through a mental low, was very anxious. I keep going through this periodically. I am a highly anxious person, have anxiety issues, and have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). I am on medication for anxiety. I go through this all the time, thinking, ‘Oh, what will happen next?’ So, just before Latent also, I was going through that episode, and then Latent happened. So, it’s a new lease of life. I need assurance all the time. I need to be reassured all the time about the validity of my existence.”

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That “new lease of life” also gave Surabhi a reason to celebrate, and the 47-year-old marked the moment by reuniting with her Qubool Hai co-stars for a party. “In fact, after Latent, the gang met at my place but these are things that we don’t do for photo-ops,” concluded the actor-turned-stand-up comedian

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