Those Indian Guys Organisation / Collective / Group

INFO

Name	Those Indian Guys
Established	2002
Disestablished	2021
Artform	Comedy, Theatre
Decades Active	2000s, 2010s
Ethnicities	Indian
Names of Artists	Tarun Mohanbhai, Rajeev Varma

ABOUT

Those Indian Guys formed in 2002 when comedian Tarun Mohanbhai and actor Rajeev Varma created the play D’Arranged Marriage. Mohanbhai had been performing comedy in Aotearoa as That Indian Guy since 1998, but together as Those Indian Guys, Mohanbhai and Varma created several comedy plays featuring characters that poked fun at Indian New Zealand stereotypes, often incorporating shadow and hand puppets, video, soundscapes and slides. Those Indian Guys were hugely popular with audiences, performing to sell-out crowds and touring widely overseas.

D’Arranged Marriage, which premiered in 2002 to sold-out audiences at the International Laugh Festival, follows Sanjay Gupta, an aspiring comic who works at his parents’ shop and spends his time evading his family’s desire to see him married — only to find himself in a love triangle. This one-man show toured around the world, including to New York, London, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Singapore and Toronto. Initially performed by Mohanbhai and directed by Varma, the pair began to alternate performing as they toured.

Indian Invaders premiered in 2004 at Silo Theatre. Its performances in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Pōneke Wellington sold out, with extra performances selling out in 48 hours. It was written by Mohanbhai and Varma as a prequel to D’Arranged Marriage, focusing on the first show’s parent characters, Manhur and Pushpa, beginning in a small village in India in the 1950s and following them to a vegetable shop in Pukekohe. It featured Mohanbhai and Varma performing on stage together for the first time and was awarded Best Local Act at the 2004 New Zealand International Comedy Festival.

The following year, Indian Invaders was renamed From India with Love and presented at the Oddfellows New Zealand International Comedy Festival. At this time, the show was directed by the comedian Te Radar and featured guest appearances from friends, including Pio Terei and Taungaroa Emile. Reviewing the show in The Global Indian in 2005, Sangeeta Ananad said, “Those Indian Guys had audiences (or most of them) in splits throughout the play”. The following year, theatre reviewer John Smythe described From India with Love as“the high point of the comedy festival”, praising Varma and Mohanbhai for “100 minutes of ingeniously wrought comedy.” From India with Love also toured internationally, including through South Africa in 2005.

Those Indian Guys also wrote and performed sketches for Asia Downunder, which screened on TV One, worked on The Mike King Show, and appeared on What Now and Breakfast. During the early 2000s, they were also the MCs for public Diwali celebrations in Tāmaki Makaurau and Pōneke.