They’re absolutely witty and their wise-cracks have entertained Kannada audiences online for over two years now. Meet the sakkathly funny members of Karnataka Entertainment Board (KEB) who’ve been creating waves with their satirical content in Kannada. The comedy group is known specially for their highly popular show Weekend with Suresh (a parody of the talk show Weekend with Ramesh). Often called the All India Bakchod (AIB) of Karnataka, KEB’s latest video is a spoof of a current local news show that grills a particular politician or a celebrity.
Talking about their latest video, actor Poornachandra Mysore, a KEB member says, “We wanted to show the current state of politics and media in the state. It’s basically a satire on politicians and the way they function.”Apart from politics, this comedy collective has portrayed various current issues like the Karnataka elections and the IPL.
Ask the bunch of talented blokes about their beginnings and they reveal, “All of us hail from Mysuru and were part of a theatre group in college. After we graduated, we were drawn towards cinema and started making short films. Our team comprises Mahadev, Shashank, Nagabhushan, Sunil, Rahul and Shamanth. One day, Mahadev walked upto us and said, ‘Let’s make a series called Weekend with Suresh and we decided to go for it. We started making videos inspired by our real lives. We created a YouTube channel and our first video was about an RCB fan’s obsession with AB de Villiers!” Soon, KEB’s episodes of Weekend With Suresh garnered massive views. “Our first episode featured the life of a software engineer, the second one showed the life of a housewife and the third one portrayed a Government Official.” Their other show that went viral was called The effects of social media and featured filmmaker Pawan Kumar.” We talked about something called the ‘likes deficiency syndrome’ on social media and how the Internet can bring out strange behavior from people. Pawan’s video generated 10,000 more subscriptions for us,” reveals Poornachandra.
With their audiences requesting them to make more videos, the boys admit that sponsorship has been a hassle. “We want to do a web series and we’re looking for sponsors. We don’t get money from YouTube views. For the first episode of WWS, we pooled in around Rs 30000, but for the second season,Pawan was kind enough to sponsor it for us along with Stoned Monkey Productions. We don’t spend too much on our videos — we make them for our happiness. We’ve created a platform to express ourselves and YouTube has helped many of us get noticed and bag projects,” they say.
As for the kind of content they want to create, Nagabhushan NS reveals, “We don’t want to indulge in ‘below the belt’ humour. Anyone can crack a vulgar joke and make people laugh. But we want to create content that’s genuinely sarcastic and witty.” Adds Poornachandra, “We make videos based on current trends. Sometimes, our comedy may not reach college-going kids as they may not relate to it, which we want to change as we’re trying to reach a wider audience.”
