The comedy scene in India has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past few years. A lot of comedians came under the spotlight and found a platform to showcase their talent, especially female comics. One such comedian is Prashasti Singh. She is one of the most hilarious stand-up comedians with a very distinct voice. Her joke delivery style, expression, and storytelling prowess – all add up to her success as a comic in India. Not just that, Prashasti is also a writer, actor, and improviser.
She was one of the top three comics on Amazon Prime Video‘s hugely popular comedy reality show, Comicstaan. Her stand-up videos on Instagram and YouTube channel are wildly loved by the masses. From performing at shows to hosting her own specials and tours to writing for movies, Prashasti has only grown as an artist and has been a part of many huge projects.
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Comedy To Film Writing
The classic chick flick “Thank You For Coming” has been creating massive buzz ever since it was announced. The best part is that the majority of the cast and crew of this film are women. We all know that it stars the iconic Bhumi Pednekar and Shehnaaz Gill along with the biggest content creators today – Kusha Kapila, Dolly Singh, Shibani Bedi, and Sushant Divgikr. But did you know that Prashasti Singh is one of the writers of “Thank You For Coming?”
Thanks to the director Karan Boolani, this engineer-turned-stand-up comic wrote this movie along with Radhika Anand. These two writers are the brains behind this story that introduces us to Kanika Kapoor (Bhumi Pednekar) a single woman in her thirties on a quest to discover true love and pleasure with the support of her girl best friends. The film premiered at The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2023 and is set to release in cinemas on October 6, 2023.
Prashasti’s Background
The 33-year-old comic hailing from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, has a stellar educational background. In 2004, Prashasti Singh completed her schooling at Delhi Public School R.K. Puram in New Delhi. She then studied Engineering in Electronics and Communication at the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology followed by a job at Deloitte Consulting and then at Dell Bengaluru as an Analyst. Prashasti went on to pursue her Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management from the coveted Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow.
In 2014, she came to Mumbai and joined Star India as Assistant Manager – Marketing. She was later promoted to the role of Category Head there. During that period, Prashasti took up stand-up comedy as a part-time job. For 8 months, she juggled between her corporate job and stand-up. In 2018, Comicstaan happened post which she decided to take up comedy full-time. Interestingly, her decision to pursue a career in this field initially faced resistance from her mother, Bharti Singh, but she eventually came around to support her daughter’s choice.
Her Comedy Journey
Comicstaan has given many budding comedians a place to explore their talents, one of them being Prashasti. She was a participant in Season 1 and then returned as one of the mentors in Season 3. This was a full-circle moment for her.
“I was someone who used to watch reality shows staying on the other side. I thought ‘Whose life has ever been made by reality show competitions’. But now, after experiencing ‘Comicstaan’, I’ve realised that no, lives can be changed through a platform. And that’s what ‘Comicstaan’ is, life-changing! If I hadn’t been a part of ‘Comicstaan’, I probably would’ve been doing a job, while working part-time as a comic,” she said.
Later, Prashasti hosted the segment “Bath Cheat” in the show Kiski Sarkar streamed on MX Player. In 2020, she took her comedic talents to Netflix, featuring in the all-women stand-up special, “Ladies Up” alongside Kaneez Surka, Supriya Joshi, and Niveditha Prakasam.
Her Stand-Up Special
The comedian had put up two stand-up videos in the past year titled “Heartbreaks” and “Fake Feminist.” She recently released her four-part debut special titled “Door Khadi Sharmaaye.” It is available on her YouTube channel. This special is the culmination of solo standup shows from a year-long tour, with the hour-long show filmed at the Bangalore International Centre.
The special is a dig at the conventional understanding of romance through some silly anecdotes and some salty social observations. Prashasti has divided the special into four parts, two are story-heavy and the other two are mostly observational jokes. They’ve been edited to be consumed independently as she’s currently trying to reach a wider audience that doesn’t necessarily follow her content.
Beyond her comedy, Prashasti Singh is popular for her strong feminist beliefs and her unwavering support for women. Her unique blend of humor, drawn from her own life experiences, continues to resonate with audiences. This makes her a notable figure in the world of stand-up comedy and now in the ‘writers of cinema’ club.
