(JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak)

Everything about writer and standup comedian Raditya Dika is a contradiction.

While he admits he is a lethargic person, he also has the passion and resilience to develop both the comic and creative industry.

Although he said he had only rode the wave of social media fad to fame, in actual fact this has been a calculated move.

Despite his unfortunate love life, he has amassed wealth from making films based on his disastrous dating stories.

Talking with the blogger, whose works have been published and transposed into movies, one might expect laughter '€” definitely not the all-serious Radit, as he is popularly known.

'€œI'€™m not a morning person. I wake up early only during film shoots,'€ he said, sipping his third cup of coffee.

But he had been ready early for the media interview on the upcoming release of his latest movie Malam Minggu Miko (Miko'€™s Saturday Nights).

Radit wrote, directed and played Miko in the movie along with Ryan Adriandhy and Andovi daLopez as his buddies slash date counselors Rian and Dovi and Hadian Saputra as housekeeper Anca.

The movie, which is the big screen version of Radit'€™s web series of the same title, will be released on Sept. 11.

The web series was uploaded in 2012 following the YouTube craze in that year, funneling his frustration over being single. A TV station picked up the most-viewed series, which contributed to Radit'€™s enormous number of Twitter followers (mostly Internet natives aged between 15 and 21) and produced more series that lasted more than two seasons.

When he started, he spent Rp 4 million (US$340) on producing one episode with an average 10-minute airtime on the public video channel. He avoided answering how much the feature movie had cost, but said a good quality one might cost up to Rp 3 billion.

'€œI'€™m a writer, but because I'€™ve been involved in the movie-making of my books I also picked up skills on directing, cinematography and acting. I didn'€™t do everything because I wanted to be a one-man production team, but because at that time I could not afford to hire professionals,'€ he said.

Born on Dec. 28, 1984, as the eldest of five (two are twin sisters) to a Batak family of the Nasution clan, Radit had always been a class clown.

He finished high school in Jakarta and then studied at Adelaide University where he studied finance for three years before returning home and switching his major to politics at the University of Indonesia (UI).

Being raised in a home of academics '€” his late father was a journalist and mother a public policy lecturer, while his grandmothers were dean of chemistry at UI and school headmistress, respectively '€” Radit used a scientific method to solve problems.

When he was still a fourth grader, he came across comedy novels written by Hilman Hariwijaya that intrigued his young mind on what made him laugh. He underlined the lines in question and analyzed the characters, the plot, the writing style and the subtext, if there was any.

Radit also read joke books belonging to his mother and grandmother and wrote down his own in a special notebook, sharing it with his classmates.

'€œI knew at that time that I wanted to become a writer,'€ he said, adding that it also helped in building his confidence of joke telling.

He wrote journals and when blogs became a thing of the era, his became a must-read. And the rest is history.

'€œI guess I came at the right time with the right thing [to offer]. The same thing happened when I and some friends introduced a standup comedy TV program. People were getting bored with TV entertainment at that time and that there was this need to upgrade the level of comic material that catered to the middle-class and up.

'€œI'€™ll use the same strategy in the future '€” identify the right time to release the right product,'€ said Radit, whose favorite national hero is Robert Wolter Monginsidi because he once lived on the street named after the independence fighter.

Radit was also the judge of a standup comedian contest on TV, as part of his grand plan to develop the industry.

'€œLet'€™s say that I'€™m grooming young comics to fill the entertainment industry with a good sense of comedy. I'€™ll ask them to join my movies and have a discussion on writing comedy here in my house. I want them to be more than just funny people on stage.'€

He acknowledged that a comic was not the happiest job under the sun, as they were exposed to negative thoughts as they searched for laughs.

'€œWe work on the wrong things in society, things that make us restless and feel annoyed and then laugh at them while expecting the audience to laugh with us,'€ said Radit.

Himself a closed person who prefers staying in his room playing games on his computer to hanging out, Radit realized the risk of getting carried away with his job.

He lived alone with Sphynx, Himalaya, Scottish Fold and Maine Coon cat breeds in a rented house, pending the construction of his new house.

'€œTo get out of the gloom mode, I met some friends and talked about things other than entertainment stuff, or I just laughed at my own jokes.'€

Radit has finished the pilot episode of his next web series Raditya Dika Ngomongin Cinta (Raditya Dika Talks about Love) but is thinking of delaying its public release as a book will come after his movie release.

'€œIt'€™s a comedy essay where there will be a thesis, argument and elimination method, which is presented in a skit. It'€™s already on my YouTube channel but I thought of releasing it to the public next year. But I don'€™t know, there'€™ll probably be something else next year. One thing is for certain, I would like to get another cat in the near future.'€

Now that he has learned from his dating flops, Radit finally has a girlfriend. But he still prefers staying at home, alone, on a Saturday night.

'€œWe date on Sunday. It'€™s less traffic.'€

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