Be it Rishabh Malhotra from Mind the Malhotras on Prime Video or Vikrant Shastri from Potluck on Sony LIV, TV presenter-turn-actor Cyrus Sahukar has become the poster boy for contemporary urban middle-aged men juggling life and its many demands. In a freewheeling chat with The Telegraph Online, the former MTV VJ talks about Potluck Season 2, hints at a pilot where he might be reunited with the other MTV VJs of the 1990s, shares his night-time watchlist and discusses his entrepreneurial venture.

The Telegraph Online: After the Malhotras of Mind the Malhotras, you are back as the Shastris of Potluck…

Cyrus Sahukar: (Laughs) Yeah. I am back from one family to another. I am excited because I like the people I work with. You put in a lot of effort and we hope people like it.

Can you share a glimpse of the new journey the Shastris have embarked on in Potluck Season 2...

Cyrus Sahukar: Season 1 of Potluck was a bit of a setup of who the family members are and how they are brought up. The father fakes a heart attack to get all the family members together. Season 2 begins where Season 1 left off.

My character, Vikrant, the eldest son, who was in a confrontation with his father because of lying about the heart attack, wants to get a new home, which he later comes to know is funded by his younger brother.

Vikrant and his wife (played by Ira Dubey) both work. She works at a startup company. Vikrant decided to work from home as he runs a startup and looks after three kids. Parenting is something that our characters explore. With three young children, it’s all about discussing logistics and nappies because there’s no time to fight. It’s a bit of a running-against-the-time situation.

Vikrant considers himself a kind of maverick as he can think up new ideas but in this situation, he often fails. He’s always the fun dad but there’s a lot of logistics to take care of and the daughter is growing older and has got her own opinions. And when his parents are in trouble, they suck up to the elder child to sort it out. I am happy that Vikrant’s mother (played by Kitu Gidwani) is doing something for herself, but his father doesn’t find it very interesting. The mother always turns to her elder son.

You represent contemporary urban family men on screen. What kind of feedback do you get from the audience who find your characters very relatable?

Cyrus Sahukar: Oh, the number of people who come to me at airports…! (Smiles) I travel a lot for hosting shows, so a lot of men come to me to talk about my characters. I play the regular average guy. We don’t realise that people see our shows abroad too, so I was a bit taken aback in Malaysia and the US during my recent travels. There are some people who talk about specific scenes and episodes. I also strike up a conversation about what they do and how they live. I am in a position where I am not a superstar, so people don’t find me intimidating. People chit-chat with me, thinking me to be one of their own.

Isn’t it your comfort zone?

Cyrus Sahukar: I would love to do all kinds of work. I hope and pray to get it. I recently finished a series where I have a completely different role with a new look. It’s not that I say no to thrillers. It’s also about finding myself comfortable in these roles. There’s a desperate need for easy viewing. I get too tired and exhausted watching documentaries and crime thrillers, so I feel that easy, light and relatable content needs to be explored. Writing isn’t an easy job for these kinds of shows. I want to do a small character in another kind of show, be a part of a different world.

As films and shows are dropping on OTT every weekend and sometimes within the week as well, we are spoilt for choice. Sometimes a good show gets lost or is overlooked in the midst of other more-hyped shows. Does it worry you?

Cyrus Sahukar: Sometimes when I sit down to watch, my whole hour goes into what should I watch. You lose certain shows, but you can revisit them also. Schitt’s Creek became such a phenomenon because it started streaming on Netflix, so you can get lost but you can be found. That’s how the world consumes entertainment now, as there is too much out there.

Whenever you or anybody among the popular MTV hosts post footage from your iconic shows, there’s always love pouring in from people...

Cyrus Sahukar: It’s iconic! With MTV, we did some spoofs. All our footage is lost and when we got a few, Cyrus Broacha posted it, which got so many likes and comments. We realised that we all grew up together. If one has grown up in the 1990s, we were a part and parcel of their lives and some of it is still funny. We created more things than pop culture. When we look back, our spoofs were not brutal, aggressive or disrespectful; it was fun and it also talked about the times in 2004-2005. I am privileged to have been a part of it.

So, is there a chance to see the popular MTV VJs together in some format?

Cyrus Sahukar: I hope for a version of it…(Smiles) Recently, we had a reunion where Malaika (Arora), (Cyrus) Broacha, Nikhil (Chinapa), Shenaz (Treasurywala and a few others and I met. It took 100 WhatsApp messages to make it happen because everybody is busy with their work and life. I have shot a pilot with the people with whom I used to work. If it works, then we will all work together. A lot of people are going back to how it was before than recreate what works.

In the space of light-hearted entertaining shows, which are your favourites?

Cyrus Sahukar: Modern Family, Schitt’s Creek, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Gullak. This is the world that I am a big fan of. A lot of my night-time viewing shows are like this.

You also became an entrepreneur with the food chain KulchaBros. How did that happen?

Cyrus Sahukar: It’s an idea that we basically discussed during the lockdown because we are big fans of Matar Kulcha and Pindi Chole, which is available on the streets of Delhi and not anywhere else. So we decided why not bring the culture of kulchas from across India. So, we went around, did our research, tasted 1,000 kulchas to get the perfect taste and launched KulchaBros (Cyrus’s friend and TV presenter-actor Samir Kochhar is also a co-founder) in Mumbai.

Food is a tough business. We launched in Delhi and Gurgaon as well. It’s good to work with friends, people who you trust. We are four friends who have known each other since childhood. Each brings their own expertise. It’s a wonderful venture and provides great education on how to start a business from zero and how to make it grow.