Vir Das shares his lockdown ordeal after an old man harasses, sneezes and threatens to assault him

Actor comedian Vir Das took to social media and shared his lockdown ordeal after an old man near his residence harassed him and threatened to assault him. Das captured a video of the man, who approached him while having a socially distanced sit out with his neighbour at night.

In a detailed statement on Facebook and Twitter, Vir wrote, “This is one crazy evening. I live on the ground floor. We’ve got a little sit out. At 10 pm a neighbour came by, because we had cooked dinner for them too. We do that with them and also some of the others within the complex. We gave him a chair fifteen feet away, FULLY socially distanced. My neighbour had a can of coke from his house, a mask on, which he had pulled down to have a smoke. I was on the outdoor sit out area of my house, literally on my own balcony step; neighbour was in the complex, fully socially distanced. Five minutes later, this happens. This man is not my landlord; he lives on the first floor of the annexe building. He is upset because my landlord inherited the house I live in and he didn’t. This man does not own my doorstep, my sit-out, or my house. I’m not sure if an old man threatening to assault me, or sneezing on me, or asking his dead parent to haunt me qualifies as harassment. But this is a little ridiculous. And before this turns into him going to the media, as he has done before, and I’ve sat through it quietly…I’m not normally one for drama..…I’m sorry but this crossed the line. How’s your lockdown going?”

“To be clear. Uncle has been known to do this to us multiple times and then go to tabloids and get articles written about me and my family. Tabloids carry them because that's what tabloids love. I’ve recorded him multiple times, and let it go every single time quietly. I've tried legal notices, speaking to my landlord. But I’ve never gone to social media. This time at least it's out there before seedy articles that are sure to follow. Today crossed a line...hope you understand.” he added.

On the work front, Das was seen in the Netflix series, "Hasmukh", which he has co-created and written with Nikkhil Advani.

"Hasmukh" is about an ambitious comic who realises that the only way he can "kill it on stage" is if he "kills off stage".

Talking about the challenges he faced while working on the show, Vir said: "The challenge was to convince people to let me do a show like this. I don't think had I not written it, I would get to be a part of it in this capacity as a lead of the show.

"I had to create the opportunity. What helped was that I did a short film with Milap Zaveri titled ‘Raakh'. That was dark. So, when that came out and got a good response, then I thought that it was a good time to go out in the market with an idea like that."