One would never expect stand-up comedian Sumukhi Suresh to sign up for a Hindi reality show. But she did. So, we caught up with her right before she left on this social experiment to know why. After The Royals, the comedian — who also wrote Pushpavalli (2017–2020) and CTRL (2024) — says she was keen to shake up her life. And Chhoriyan Chali Gaon made her “nervous.” In conversation with mid-day, Suresh talks about her daring decision, her plans to catch the heart of a gaon ka chhora, and her next script.

Excerpts from the interview.

Your career trajectory is vastly different from your fellow comedians. How did you settle from stand-up to a Hindi reality show?
I’m doing television. Can you believe it? I’m genuinely very excited because it has been so long since I did something new and [something that makes me] nervous. Literally everyone I know has been surprised by my decision. Just a day [before coming on board], I was going through full-blown panic, thinking, what am I doing with my life? While everyone feels I am doing so many things, I don’t register it.