Who is Samay Raina? What is India's Got Latent?

Samay Raina gained fame as a stand-up comedian after winning Comicstaan season 2 and has attracted a large following on YouTube for his humor and chess streams.

Podcaster and entrepreneur Ranveer Allahabadia got embroiled in a huge controversy over his remarks at comedian Samay Raina’s YouTube show ‘India’s Got Latent’. A complaint has been registered in Mumbai against the two YouTubers, along with Apoorva Mukhija, another creator who was on the panel of the show over the use of abusive language, reported news agency ANI.

Ranveer Allahbadia appeared on Samay Raina's India's Got Latent.

Who is Samay Raina?

Samay Raina is an Indian stand-up comedian who rose to prominence when he won the second season of stand-up comedy contest Comicstaan in 2019 along with fellow contestant Aakash Gupta.

A print engineer by degree, Samay Raina found his true passion in stand-up comedy. He is mostly known for his unhinged comedy style, which many refer to as ‘dark’, making jokes that might make some people uncomfortable. During the pandemic, Samay Raina raised a massive subscriber base on YouTube by hosting and streaming chess games. His skills at playing the game and adding a touch of humour to it are what appealed to his fans.

Today, he has 7.36 subscribers on his YouTube channel and six million followers on Instagram, making him one of the most popular stand-up comedians in the Indian comedy circle.

What is India’s Got Latent?

Samay Raina is the brain behind the YouTube show ‘India’s Got Latent’, his own humorous YouTube version of the popular reality show ‘India’s Got Talent’. In Samay’s show, contestants from across India come to showcase their talent, or sometimes rather lack of it, on the stage. This is then followed by a grilling session by the judges present on the panel, which includes Samay himself and the guests he invites to the show.

The contestants, instead of competing with each other, have to actually be just self-aware in order to win. The unique scoring system of the show includes giving oneself a score, and if it matches the average of the scores that the jury panel gives, the contestant wins a cash prize.

The show also follows the format of ‘Kill Tony’, an American comedy podcast hosted by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. The difference between the two shows being that in Kill Tony, the participants only perform comedy sets while in Samay’s show, there’s no bar to talent and also, the unusual scoring system.

First episode of Samay Raina’s ‘India’s Got Latent’ streamed on his channel on YouTube seven months back and has gained immense viewership since, owing to the comedian’s popularity.

Millions of people across the world watch the show, with its lowest viewership being 20 million and highest being 40 million views on one of the episodes.