Kim Sharma recalls being told “people don’t buy female comedy” while producing Sumukhi Suresh’s ‘Hoemonal’

In a recent interview with ANI, Kim, who made her debut as a producer with ‘Hoemonal’, recalled the challenges she faced while bringing Sumukhi’s stand-up special to fruition.

Creating the stand-up special ‘Hoemonal’ was no easy journey for producer Kim Sharma and comedian Sumukhi Suresh. The two women worked tirelessly over the past two to three years to shape the act and finally bring it to the streaming platform Netflix in October. In a recent interview with ANI, Kim, who made her debut as a producer with ‘Hoemonal’, recalled the challenges she faced while bringing Sumukhi’s stand-up special to fruition.

She initially had no plans of producing the act herself, believing that she could approach some of the best names in the industry and bring them on board. However, the responses she received were far from encouraging. And instead of letting the disappointing responses deter her, Kim decided to take matters into her own hands and produce the special. "I'm always up for the challenge. I have had never done touring before for live tours and stand-up. So when I took on this show, I remember telling Sumukhi that, 'Listen, this is something I don't know anything about, and maybe we should outsource this to people who have experience'. And that was initially what we decided, and so when I took this show on, we actually went out there to find partners that would lend their expertise to us. And again, it was a 'boys club'," Kim recalled.

She remembered how she was told that “people don’t buy female comedy” when she approached industry professionals to partner on the project. "We went to the best in the business, and we were told that, 'Oh, you know, Sumukhi, yeah, she's good, but she doesn't sell tickets, and you know, people don't buy female comedy.' And this is like a good two-and-a-half, three years ago. 'And we don't know, and let's change the tour dates because so-and-so is touring now and so-and-so is touring then.' And I'm like, 'So what if the so-and-sos are tour—like we can still tour.' And they're like, 'No, no, no, because if you tour at the same time, it will affect your ticket sales and we don't see an ROI'," she shared.

"I mean, it was so demotivating that I walked out of that room and found it so frustrating. But you know that actually became my fuel. That became my fire. Their rejection or their inability to see the talent and the potential of her, that's what really fueled me. So I just got out and I was like, 'You know what?  I'm going to take this tour on myself. And so I went, I called Sumukhi and I was like, 'Listen, I don't know anything about this, but I'm going to do it.'  And she's like, "Oh my God, please do it." I had that partner in crime, I also had her support and trust, and eventually managed to do it," Kim further said. Kim is looking forward to a time when comedians are recognised for their talent rather than their gender.

"I look forward to a time where a comedian is comedian. It took a lot of time for actors to get there. Like earlier you'd be an actor and an actress, and now it's a very sort of conscious effort to call yourself an actor, you know, because if you're an artist, it's gender-neutral. And I wished for that. I hope for that time where comedians are comedians, and it's not a male comedian or a female comedian, it's a comedian, because they have the skill set to get out there and tell a story which makes you laugh," she emphasised. Drawing from her own experiences ranging from dating, relationships, body image, and the questions around motherhood, Sumukhi's Hoemonal finds the funny in the awkward, messy, and rarely spoken-about parts of navigating adulthood as a woman.

Drawing from her personal experiences with dating, relationships, body image and the questions surrounding motherhood, Sumukhi’s ‘Hoemonal’ explores the awkward, messy and often unspoken realities of navigating adulthood as a woman, finding humour in experiences that are deeply personal yet widely relatable. (ANI)