Popular comedian Samay Raina has teased the second season of his controversial show ‘India’s Got Latent’ in a new stand-up special where he talked about the controversy that led to multiple FIRs against him and other cast members.In February last year, a prank by YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia sparked nationwide outrage and multiple FIRs against all the comedians involved in that particular episode of “India’s Got Latent”.
In his new special, Raina invoked George Orwell and his Kashmiri Pandit legacy to talk about the aftermath of the storm, prompting the entire show to be deleted from YouTube.“I don’t think my show could have ended on a higher level,” he said in the special that aired last night.Before saying again, “I don’t think the first season of my show would have ended on a higher note than this. I’m definitely bringing the show back because I loved doing that show. I want to do a wild show and after the censors you see the softie version.” In an emotional moment during the over-an-hour act, the 28-year-old comedian recalled how he finally broke down when he saw his friend’s parents, and the owner of the show’s venue Habitat club, Balraj Singh Ghai, caught in the crossfire.“Ranveer is getting death threats, his family is scared and everyone is texting me, ‘Brother, what happened?’ I was feeling guilty that morning because something I uploaded had caused all this… Then I saw a video sent to me by Balraj’s wife and it totally broke me. That was the final nail in the coffin.” “Inside the habitat, Balraj’s parents, who are in their 70s, and they don’t fail to run that comedy club where we were filming, were falling at the feet of the young cops and begging, ‘Sir, please leave us alone, we haven’t done anything.’ I broke down watching the video, and I was crying,” Raina said.The comedian said that when his mother called to check on him, he was so distraught that he didn’t pick up her video call. But when he did, he was shaking with fear and worry.He also spoke of how Apoorva Makhija, who was on the receiving end of the backlash and named in multiple FIRs, was only defending himself from a misogynistic comment. “Now I have three FIRs on me. I always knew this would happen, but I thought I would get in trouble for something I say. In that episode, I didn’t even say anything. I was sitting in a corner. Kashmiris always die in the crossfire.” The comedian said that the Assam police asked him if he was ready to apologize and he said nothing and kept repeating that the joke that Allahbadia had cracked was also old.“But they repeated their question and I thought, whether to apologize or not is a serious question for a comedian. I remembered a line from George Orwell. He was a great writer, and he once said: ‘Every joke is a small revolution and a revolution must never stop.’“But the Assam police also said a line: ‘We will put you in the fray ******. I thought about these two lines and realized that saying sorry is better here. You cannot revolutionize your society through a joke. If George Orwell were in Assam, he would say, “Every revolution is a little joke.” You only fight when the fight is fair and you have a chance to win. When the fight isn’t fair, that’s where you get screwed. Kashmir Pandit wisdom,” he said.The comedian also roasted the media, politicians, comedian Sunil Pal, singer B Praak and “Shaktimaan” actor Mukesh Khanna in his unique style. “B Praak came to criticize us. He said, ‘He’s never going on our podcast’. Who called you bro? Everyone was ready to eat us alive. Politicians, celebrities, Sunil Pal. He said, ‘They should learn from Kapil Sharma’. And Kapil Sharma was going to be the next guest on the show and he was texting me how he loved my show, ‘So Shaktimaan told me too. Shakitmaan’? “He said it will leave a bad influence on children. Really? I don’t know how many of you watched TV during ‘Shakitmaan’. Once a month, there would be news that some kid jumped off a building after watching ‘Shakitmaan’.” Raina also addressed the elephant in the room when he answered why he decided to maintain the controversial Allahabadi line in the first place.“But what you don’t know is that he said it eight times. He said a lot of other common things that I edited out. From my POV, I killed 99.9 percent of the germs.” The comedian said he was determined to defend Allahbadia until the end but he could not even defend the YouTuber in his own home.“Ranveer Allahabadi broke character, and that’s why people couldn’t digest what he said,” he added.The special that was uploaded last night has already collected over seven million views.
