In 2017, a group of friends were hanging out at a roadside tea stall in Guwahati when one of them asked a simple question: why don’t we do stand-up comedy here? Lakshey Anand opened a Facebook page called Fukra Diaries that same night. The next day they released a poster.
Nine years later, Fukra Entertainment has produced India tours for Jimmy Carr, Louis CK, Zarna Garg, Luke Kidgell, Ashwyn Singh and Alok Vaid-Menon, and is bringing Zar The Star to India for her debut dates. We spoke to Lakshey, partner and co-founder of Fukra Entertainment, about the first show, cold emails, burning money, and why he thinks India should be a destination on the global comedy circuit, not just a stop.
From weddings to live comedy
Lakshey had been working in events since 2013, freelancing for companies that ran live shows, corporate events and weddings. He handled operations and hospitality, and he did not enjoy it. The pressure was fine. The way people treated you at weddings and engagements, and the late payments, were not.
He wanted to do live entertainment instead, but at 18 or 19 nobody took him seriously. By 22 he was at that tea stall in Guwahati.
One of my friends told me, why don’t we do stand-up comedy in Guwahati? And on the same night we opened our Facebook page called Fukra Diaries.
Lakshey Anand
130 people in a cafe built for 45
They had no idea how a comedy show was supposed to work. A friendly cafe owner gave them the room, a local company called Brides and Maids sponsored the equipment, and a radio contact came on board as a partner. Performers were told they would get food and drinks but no fee. Since they didn’t know how big the Indian stand-up scene was, they filled the bill with whoever was willing: slam poetry to open, then magic, then stand-up, then music to close. In Lakshey’s words, it was a “mini festival”.
The show was set for 6 p.m. At 5:45 he stepped outside to smoke and saw 60 or 70 people walking towards the cafe. He assumed they were there for something else. The poster had gone viral at IIT Guwahati, and students had travelled 40 to 50 kilometres into the city for it.
On a cafe which was just accommodating around 40, 45 people at max, we had 130-plus people.
Lakshey Anand
There was no headliner and no known comic, only local talent. The cafe owner asked them back. A dedicated slam poetry night drew 70 people, and Fukra started building regular comedy line-ups with comics from Guwahati. Within about a year they had moved on to bigger names in the city, including Abish Mathew and Parvinder Singh, plus sold-out shows in Guwahati and Jorhat.
“We made mistakes, accepted them and learned from them”
Then the pandemic hit. Assam had early curfews and every state had its own quarantine rules, so very few touring comics could make the numbers work in Guwahati. From 2020 to 2022 Lakshey was, in his own words, frustrated: nobody was giving them work. Things picked up from March 2022, when Fukra brought Zakir Khan to Guwahati and then Vir Das on his debut tour. Managers started calling directly, and the shows spread to Kolkata. In 2023 alone, Lakshey took about 70 flights between Guwahati and Kolkata in six to eight months.
He is open about the fact that nobody at Fukra came from an events or artist management background.
Nobody on my team had worked in proper event or artist management before. So we made mistakes, accepted them and learned from them. Like, for an auditorium show, you need a generator. You can’t just rely on the venue’s electricity. Now that’s a cost we account for.
Lakshey Anand
Security and the audience experience are the two things Fukra says it never cuts costs on. Expanding beyond Guwahati was a gamble, and Lakshey paid for it himself.
There was no guarantee that any of it would actually turn into business. And I was spending my own money, not even the company’s, travelling to different cities, checking out venues, meeting managers, all of it.
Lakshey Anand
For any bigger show, he still travels to the city a day or two early. If something doesn’t feel right, he changes the plan on the spot, and he always keeps a plan B.
It’s not about a show, it’s about a scene
Producers in India rarely get credit, Lakshey says. If 100 people turn up for a show, maybe 15 or 20 will know who produced it, and five or ten will end up following the producer. Most people assume the ticketing platform put the show on, unless something goes wrong. He thinks about the long game instead.
It’s not about a show. It’s about a scene you’re trying to build. A producer might not be in the business in the next 20 years, but the audience is still there.
Lakshey Anand
For the American side of the business, read Barry Katz Has Managed Comedy’s Biggest Names. He Says Comedy Isn’t Fair.
How a cold email brought Jimmy Carr to India
While Fukra was struggling to get work during the pandemic, Lakshey noticed that bigger cities were the safer bet for touring comics. If a tour got stuck by COVID rules in Mumbai or Delhi, the comic could easily get home, but getting stuck in Guwahati could wreck a tour. Then he saw the Dubai Comedy Festival announce an international line-up.
I’m getting insulted in the Indian scene. I don’t mind going to the western scene and getting insulted there.
Lakshey Anand
He emailed Jimmy Carr’s team, again and again. International agents are busy and rarely reply. Eventually he got an answer: thanks for reaching out, and thanks for your patience, Jimmy is interested in coming to India. Fukra sent a plan, and Carr played India in January 2024. Lakshey admits he was nervous until Carr announced the dates himself. A promoter from a tier-two city, he says, is easily dismissed as someone just fooling around.
It was not smooth. Fukra had just secured a Mumbai venue after a long delay when news broke about trouble at the Bengaluru venue they had booked, and they had to rework the tour. Carr’s team took it in their stride. Lakshey describes them as “one of those people you love to work” with, with no fuss and no huge tech riders.
That relationship opened the next door. When Lakshey heard Louis CK was planning an Asia tour, he asked Carr’s tour manager for an introduction. Within four days he was talking to the Asia promoter, Comic Soul, and within about two months the India dates were locked in. Louis CK’s Ridiculous tour played Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi in March 2026, co-promoted by Fukra and Comic Soul. Hop For Pop was in the audience.
Before that, Lakshey says, he had cold-emailed Louis CK himself. He calls it “the stupidest mail”, along the lines of “Hi Lou, how are you? Would you like to come to India?”
The first tour that didn’t happen
Not every pitch landed. Lakshey says the first international comic he tried to bring over was Trevor Noah, and there was real interest. But Fukra was still new to the business side, including tax, ticket pricing and city permissions, and the tour never happened with them. He calls it a good thing in the end: the disappointment pushed him to learn the economics properly. Working with Jimmy Carr’s team taught him the rest, from Indian taxation and licences to sending money overseas.
Fukra has burned a lot of money learning, he admits, but it is strict about its P&Ls now. If another promoter offers an artist more, he doesn’t argue.
If you’re paying 10 rupees, there is always a next guy who’s ready to pay 15 or 20 rupees and burn their hands.
Lakshey Anand
India as a destination, not a stop
Lakshey doesn’t only book comics he personally loves. He has a long wish list, and roughly three or four in every ten acts Fukra works with are personal favourites. He’s realistic about the market, too: ticket prices in India can’t match the West, so tours have to make commercial sense for the artist. He doesn’t try to match the capacities a comic plays abroad, because an Indian turnout can go either way. And India still doesn’t have many venues of the standard some big Western acts need.
He believes the audience is ready. When Fukra does shows in Bengaluru, he says, half the crowd has often never been to a comedy show before. They saw a reel or an ad and wanted to see what it was about.
India shouldn’t be just a stop on the global comedy circuit. It should be a destination.
Lakshey Anand
He is proud of one production detail from the Louis CK tour. Fukra worked with its ticketing partner District, from Zomato, to bring in automatic seat allocation, which is common in the West but had never been used in India. Tickets went on sale well before the tour, buyers couldn’t choose their seats, and the complaint rate was about 1%. Delhi had none at all.
His comedy Mount Rushmore
We asked Lakshey for his four favourite international comics. Bill Burr came first. If he got to produce Burr and then had to retire, Lakshey says, he would be happy. Then came Chris Rock and Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias. For the last slot he went searching through his YouTube history and came back with Nikki Glazer, for her roasts, especially the Kevin Hart roast.
From India, his top two are Vir Das and Zakir Khan.
See who other comics picked in We Asked Comedians for Their Mount Rushmore of Stand-Up. Only One Name Kept Coming Back.
What’s next for Fukra
Fukra is bringing New York comic Zar The Star to India for her debut tour, Call Centre Revenge, this December. Jimmy Carr is coming back with a bigger tour in 2027, Laughs Funny, across more cities. Lakshey also wants to bring over comics who are big elsewhere but not yet known in India. He points to Luke Kidgell, an arena seller in Australia and New Zealand, who was happy to play 300-seat rooms in India and found a cult audience.
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