The Rotoris Room | Vir Das, Saif Ali Khan, Ayaan Ali Bangash, Prateek Sadhu & Suyash Keshari
Five men. Five different worlds. One conversation that was never meant to be moderated—only overheard.
Actor Saif Ali Khan, comedian Vir Das, sarod maestro Ayaan Ali Bangash, chef Prateek Sadhu and wildlife filmmaker Suyash Keshari sit together for a three-hour conversation about craft, masculinity, discipline, failure, legacy and the codes that shape extraordinary lives.
Vir Das on Being Banned in Madhya Pradesh
Vir Das opens the room admitting he's banned from an Indian state, Madhya Pradesh, after his viral Kennedy Centre speech and 14 FIRs.
Swapping Professions
If each man had to trade his craft for one of the others, who would he become? Vir Das picks acting, joking about a macho Pankaj Tripathi type. Saif Ali Khan recalls playing a chef on screen, told nobody trusts a thin chef. Ayaan Ali Bangash and Prateek Sadhu weigh music against cooking against acting.
Reel Life vs. Real Life
The room talks about what social media has done to craft itself, from classical music to comedy to fine dining, where everyone with a phone is now a food critic, a music critic, a comedian.
What Chivalry Means Now
The room redefines chivalry and honor away from dating-scene cliches like pulling out chairs and holding doors. Honor, here, is recognizing who has less power than you, and how you treat them. One of the men talks about being the alpha jock captain in school, realizing over time that loud, dominant masculinity was never something to be proud of. Prateek Sadhu traces it to his mother, and the early 1990s, when his family left Kashmir and started over.
Sharpening the Craft
Suyash Keshari talks about learning wildlife tracking from ex-poachers turned guides, not in a classroom. The room lands on a theory of craft: your taste is always ahead of your talent when you start out, and the real work is closing that gap.
The Codes They Live By
What code do you live by as number one on the call sheet? Punctuality. Never keep anyone waiting. Know your lines. Keep the mind clear, the body fit. For comedy: let the audience be the genius, never punch down, make yourself the fool.
Enjoying the Journey
Suyash Keshari describes turning a dead farmland into a wildlife corridor, and eight months later catching a wild tigress on camera on the land they rebuilt. Ayaan Ali Bangash talks about collaborating across genres and borders. Vir Das wants comedy to become culture, not counterculture, in every small Indian town.
Failing in Public
A rapid-fire round on failure, and why none of them like the word. Saif Ali Khan recalls a polo film that never got finished, and Agent Vinod, a film his company made that didn't work. Prateek Sadhu recalls a New York restaurant that collapsed before it opened, ending in him shutting it down himself. Suyash Keshari nearly lost his business trying to do every job personally, until salaries stopped being payable. Vir Das talks through the two and a half years after his speech, when nobody would touch him with a ten-foot pole. Every one of them reframes failure as unfortunate, not final.
Become More
Closing the room: what's still left to do? Impact, legacy, rewilding land, a culinary school, mentoring the next generation. And the joke that undercuts it all: three and a half hours, cut into a 90 second reel.
END CREDITS
The Rotoris Room is a filmed conversation series by ROTORIS, a design-led watch house building limited timepieces for a generation that measures success in motion. No scripts, no moderators. Just conversations worth overhearing.
More than three hours of conversation eventually became one film. What remains is a rare look inside five people who have each reached the top of their craft—and are still trying to become better.
Every episode brings together people from different disciplines to explore the principles behind exceptional work and meaningful lives.
Featuring:
Vir Das — Comedian, Actor
Saif Ali Khan — Actor, Film Producer
Ayaan Ali Bangash — Sarod Maestro
Prateek Sadhu — Chef, Founder
Suyash Keshari — Safari Professional
Chapters:
00:00 - Vir Das on Being Banned in MP
01:04 - Swapping Professions
05:22 - Reel Life vs. Real Life
09:54 - What Chivalry Means Now
14:58 - Sharpening the Craft
27:34 - Codes They Live By
34:36 - Enjoying The Journey
39:05 - Failing in Public
45:38 - Become More
50:17 - End Credits
Follow ROTORIS:
Website:
https://rotoris.com/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/rotoris.world/
LinkedIn:
https://in.linkedin.com/company/rotoris
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