Months after his YouTube talent show India’s Got Latent kicked up a controversy over YouTuber-podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia’s perceived distasteful ‘joke’, comedian Samay Raina has announced his comeback to the public domain with a stand-up comedy tour across India. Titled Samay Raina: Still Alive and Unfiltered, the India tour will commence on August 15, cleverly coinciding with Independence Day, and will go on till October 5, during which he will perform in major cities across the country.
This is Samay’s first tour since the India’s Got Latent controversy and subsequent legal cases against him. Announcing that tickets for the various legs of the tour are now available on the entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow, he revealed that the tour will kick off in Bengaluru on August 15. He will then travel to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Pune, before concluding the tour in New Delhi on October 5.
Samay, who rose to fame after emerging as the co-winner of the stand-up comedy reality show Comicstaan 2 (2019), is one of the most controversial comics in contemporary India and has made headlines on various occasions over the past few years. In fact, even before the Ranveer Allahbadia episode, his India’s Got Latent had found itself embroiled in various controversies and that had been the case since its commencement in June 2024.
While the show faced massive backlash online in September 2024 for its use of offensive language against people with physical disabilities and speech disorders, India’s Got Latent once again became a hot topic in November when a contestant made a snide remark about actor Deepika Padukone’s battle with depression. Earlier this year, the show once again faced the heat as many people, particularly those belonging to the state, took offence at certain derogatory comments made about Arunachal Pradesh by one of the contestants.
But it was the controversy involving Ranveer Allahbadia aka Beerbiceps that brought national attention to India’s Got Latent. During his interaction with a contestant, guest judge Ranveer asked, “Would you rather watch your parents have sex for the rest of your life or join in once to make it stop?” Although the ‘joke’ received applause and cheers from the audience there, as soon as the video went viral on social media, it sparked a wave of hatred and criticism toward Ranveer and Samay. They even faced legal cases as a result, and the matter is still in court. Samay eventually removed all videos of the show from his YouTube channel.
Samay had a series of shows planned across India when the controversy began earlier this year. The shows were then cancelled and the tickets were refunded to the customers by BookMyShow.
