Star Awards winner Das DD: Humour to me is a very noble thing

SINGAPORE — Up and coming Singaporean artiste Das DD created a slice of Singapore entertainment history on Sunday night (9 April), after he earned the Best Rising Star honour at the 28th Star Awards ceremony.

The 33-year-old host of online entertainment programme #JustSwipeLah became the first Indian artiste to be nominated and then win in a performance category at the Mandarin-based awards.

Teary-eyed upon receiving his award during Sunday's ceremony at Marina Bay Sands, Das told Yahoo Southeast Asia in an interview on Wednesday, "I was very grateful that I even got this opportunity in the first place.

"I was very introspective about it because I worked very hard and long for recognition, especially for someone like me. I've never been recognised or received any award in my adult life."

How he landed the award-winning gig

Das, whose full name is Dharmadasa D Dharamahsena, first started out at English radio station Kiss92 FM alongside DJ Joshua Simon, before he began dabbling in standup comedy.

His first big break came when the opportunity arose to join YouTube channel Night Owl Cinematics as a host and content creator.

He then landed a role in Mandarin movie Reunion Dinner, which was released in January last year, starring alongside Lawrence Wong and Mark Lee. It was then that the public started recognising Das as a non-Chinese artiste who is able to speak Mandarin.

While on a promotional circuit for the movie, Das was invited as a guest on #JustSwipeLah, and made an immediate impression as he cracked jokes while eating hotpot with host Juin Teh and the cast whenever appropriate in the episode.

By the following week, he had been invited by the show's executive producer to host the show. But Das was hesitant at first.

"Are you sure? It's a Mandarin show and it's full-on Mandarin," he remembered asking the producer, well aware that his Mandarin would not be comparable to the other Chinese hosts.

Das had been thrown into the deep end, but he rose to the occasion.

The script, which is entirely in Mandarin, would take him longer to read than his co-hosts. Nevertheless, he would still write his own Mandarin jokes, and research specific Mandarin terms so that he could fully understand them.

His lines were mostly spoken in Mandarin, but he would occasionally mix in English words when his vocabulary did not allow him to complete entire sentences. Das also took the effort to fully digest the material and understand why and what his role is on the show.

The support and understanding of his crew and directors also helped boost his confidence, as he grew into his role.

Finding his brand of humour and working with directors

Although the show is scripted, Das has always had the liberty to flex his comedy chops by including jokes off the cuff, most of which would make the cut.

"Humour to me is a very noble thing because you actually give someone a break from their day," he said.

"I try not to be controversial or make a political stance. I just feel like I'm good at this comedy thing, I just stay in my lane and do what I know how to do.

"People know that the moment they come to your page, they are probably going to expect a specific brand of content. In my case, it is probably humour and jokes."

Besides comedy, Das has also dabbled in serious acting roles. Acknowledging that acting is multi-dimensional, he believes in making the best out of every role given to him and making sure to do the character justice.

"Sometimes your director will feel like your interpretation of what the role should be is different. That's when it gets interesting because you start to discuss. Whereas in comedy it is very subjective, what I find funny may not be what someone else finds funny."

What's next for him

Leading up to the momentous award-winning moment, Das had deflected any feelings of whether he was going to win the award to avoid stress.

On how the cast and crew of #JustSwipeLah responded to his win, he shared that his show family was happy and supportive and that being on set "felt like home".

But he is already taking the dive into doing more comedy projects. At the start of this month, he signed an exclusive talent contract with digital content producer SGAG.

"I wanted to do more social media because I think that, deep inside, that is the bedrock of who I really am as an artiste," he explained.

He shared that being a freelancer got a bit lonely, so in yearning for a sense of community, SGAG provided the right opportunities and were most equipped to support him in the next phase of his career.

And, rest assured, Das will be continuing to make people laugh.

"I'm very grateful when people tell me that they're having a very bad day, and they watch my video or they saw something that I've done, and it made them smile or laugh. That's the purpose of what I do and why I wake up everyday and do what I do."