India's Got Latent is an Indian Hindi comedy talent show hosted by Samay Raina on YouTube since 2024. Inspired by the international Got Talent franchise and Kill Tony, it features a wide variety of acts including singing, dancing, magic, and comedy.
On 12February 2025, Raina called off the show during the first season and made all episodes private on YouTube, in the aftermath of a controversy sparked by obscene comments made by podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia. The show returned for its second season in June 2026 on YouTube and Netflix.
History India's Got Latent was launched on June 14, 2024, by Samay Raina on his YouTube channel. Raina also launched an India's Got Latent app on iOS and Android. The show and all its episodes were made private from YouTube on February 12, 2025, after a controversy sparked over alleged derogatory comments made by Ranveer Allahbadia. In November 2025, Raina revealed that he was planning to renew the show for a second season, almost four months after clips of the episodes resurfaced on YouTube through a different channel.
In April 2026, he released a stand-up special on YouTube, titled Still Alive, where he remarked that "his show's first season couldn't have ended on a higher note" and revealed that a second season of the show was in the works.
In June 2026, speculation about the release of the second season of India's Got Latent increased after Netflix India shared a promotional post featuring Raina's bodyguard. Shortly after, Raina announced that the show will be streaming on Netflix as well as YouTube, with the first episode set to release on June 20, 2026.
The first episode of the second season was released on 20 June 2026 simultaneously on YouTube and Netflix, featuring Alia Bhatt and Sharvari as guest judges while promoting their film Alpha.
According to Mint, the premiere episode crossed fifteen million views within hours of its release. New episodes were announced to be released every two weeks on both platforms.
Format The format of India's Got Latent follows a similar structure to other shows in the Got Talent franchise and that of Kill Tony. Contestants perform in front of a panel of judges, who evaluate their acts.
Auditions The show begins with a nationwide audition process, where contestants from various cities and towns upload their clip online while performing an act and is reviewed by the selection committee before getting called to the show for stage performance.
Winner mechanism The unique aspect of India's Got Latent is its contestant rating system. Before each performance, contestants have to rate themselves. If the average rating given by the judge panel after the performance matches the contestant's self-rating, the contestant wins.
Judges and hosts The judging panel typically consists of celebrities from the Indian entertainment industry. Each judge provides feedback on the performances, while the host interacts with contestants and the audience.
Cast member Season 1 (2024)Season 2 (2026)Ref. Episode 1 1+ 2 2+ 3 3+ 4 4+ 5 5+ 6 6+ 7 8 9 1011121231+42+53+64+75+ Samay Raina ● Balraj Singh Ghai ● ●● ● ● ● Raftaar ● Sahil Kale ● Arpit Bala ●Bhappa ●Aminjaz ● Anshu Bisht ● Joke Singh ● ● ● Karan Singh ● Badshah ● ● Siddhant Chaturvedi ● Gursimran Khamba ● Urfi Javed ● Ashish Solanki ● ● Yashraj ● ● ●Avika Gor ●Devesh Dixit ●Shashwat Maheshwari ● Maheep Singh ● ● Amit Tandon ● Neeti Palta ● Seedhe Maut ●Madhur Virli ● Kaustubh Agarwal ● ● Kunal Kamra ● Atul Khatri ● Rohan Joshi ● ●Sahil Shah ● Vaibhav Munjal ● Chandni Ghai ● Vipul Goyal ● Sonali Thakker ● Ranveer Allahbadia ● Ashish Chanchalani ● Apoorva Mukhija ● Jaspreet Singh ● Saurabh Pandey ● Rahgir (singer) ● Ravi Gupta ● ● Poonam Pandey ● Vidit Gujrathi ● Vivek Desai ● Sagar Shah ● Manan Desai ● Deepak Kalal ● ● Agu Stanley Chiedozie ● ●Raghu Ram ● ●Tanmay Bhat ● ● ●Dr. Sid Warrier ●Bharti Singh ●Haarsh Limbachiyaa ●● ●Drew Hicks ●Tony Kakkar ●Rakhi Sawant ● ●Yuzvendra ChahalFarah KhanKRSNABhuvan Bam ●Ahsaas ChannaRahul Dua ●Vishal Dadlani ●Sumaira ShaikhManhar SethDalip TahilAshish VidyarthiMallika SherawatMunawar Faruqui ●Varun ThakurAnubhav Singh BassiGurleen Pannu ●Sharvari ●Alia Bhatt ●Chandan Prabhakar●Kiku Sharda●Raghav Juyal ●Niharika NM ●Karan Aujla ●Sourav Joshi ●Rajat Sood ● ●Archana Puran Singh ●Orhan Awatramani ●Sharon Verma ●Nishant Suri ●Varun Dhawan ●Medha Shankr ●Ashneer Grover ●Kushagra Srivastav ●Mukesh Chhabra ●Nawazuddin Siddiqui ●Suhani Shah ●Ayushmann Khurrana ●Aditya Kulshreshth ●
Note: "+" represents bonus episodes.
Summary of each season
Season 1
The first season premiered on YouTube in mid-2024 as an independent digital comedy-reality show. Created, hosted, and self-produced by Raina, the season introduced a satirical alternative to mainstream Indian talent shows.
Conducted in The Habitat, Mumbai, the format required contestants to showcase raw, bizarre or highly niche "latent" skills followed by an immediate self-evaluation round where they match their score with the average score of the judge panel to win a cash prize. Over its 12-episode run, accompanied by 6 bonus episodes, the show built a massive internet cult following due to its dark humor, unfiltered contestant roasts and the judge panel, which saw comedians like Tanmay Bhat, Kunal Kamra, and Rohan Joshi grace the show.
Season 2
Following a brief period of hiatus, caused by a wave of backlash which resulted in the deletion of all the episodes from the first season, the second season premiered on June 20, 2026.
In a landmark distribution deal for Indian digital indie shows, the season adopted a high-profile dual platform simulcast, premiering episodes concurrently across both Netflix for global audiences and YouTube for free tier streamers. Alongside core panelists Samay Raina and Balraj Singh Ghai, the premiere expanded its cultural footprint by incorporating mainstream Bollywood celebrities into the judging panel, featuring Alia Bhatt and Sharvari to critique the eccentric lineup of performers.
Famous contestants
Naman Arora Keshav Jha Deepak Yadav (DDSRY) Sharon Verma (became judge in season 2) Santosh Patra Bhavya Shah Anant Upadhyay Puneet Superstar Kushal Bhanushali Banti Banerjee Jessy Nabam Sukrut Deo Avinash Agarwal Geni Kamki Sakshi Jha Chello Meme
Winner +EpisodeWinnerSeason 11Jyoti Sharma, Vedant Modi2Anant Upadhyay, Suryansh Pandey & Veer, and Ekant Sawant (bonus episode)3Deepak Yadav (DDSRY)4Hard Shivam, Kartikey & Deep (bonus episode)5Naman Arora, and Poshak Dua (bonus episode)6 Sewashree Boruah, and Karan Shah (bonus episode)7Parneet Singh8Pravin Bhairwa9Kushal Bhanushali10Banti Banerjee, Mysterious Kayden11Anmol Sharma, Kushal Bhanushali12Yuvraj Gupta, Khushi SainiSeason 21Avinash Aggarwal2Kapil Dinkar3Vishal Pathak4Gaurav Madan5Fadhili Ally Pazi (bonus episode)6Chello Meme7Vijay Poriya (Netflix-only episode)8Prateik Bhardwaj9Mrugank Pathare, Kanisha Malhotra, Sachin Sonawani (bonus episode)
Reception India's Got Latent has gained popularity for its diversity in showcasing talent from different regions of India. The show has been praised for its ability to discover unique talents that might not have been recognized in mainstream entertainment and also the amalgamation of various celebrities as judges which has proved to induce laughter and popularity.
India's Got Latent was included in DNA's list of the top 5 crazy shows on YouTube in 2024.
YouTube earnings India's Got Latent was estimated to earn over crore($159,000)per month from YouTube memberships, with additional revenue generated from in-stream advertisements on each episode.
Controversies
The show has received media attention for various antics: Rakhi Sawant threw a chair on stage after getting into an argument with comedian Maheep Singh on an episode of India's Got Latent. Sawant also made a derogatory remark about Singh, after which he left the stage. The episode was eventually released on YouTube as the twelfth episode on New Year's Eve 2024, after undergoing the removal of the scene. During Santosh Patra's performance in sixth episode, the judges endorsed derogatory remarks about disabled people. During one of the performances on India's Got Latent, some of the contestants endorsed derogatory remarks on guest judge Urfi Javed, which included "slut-shaming" her, and comparing her with adult actress Mia Khalifa, which led to her walking off the show. Samay Raina, the host of the show, did not intervene and Balraj Ghai was called in to replace her for the last two performances. Banti Banerjee, a contestant and a winner on the tenth episode, made several controversial remarks during her performance that were initially endorsed by the judges and audience but later sparked online debate and outrage. Banerjee referenced Deepika Padukone's recent experience of becoming a mother and past struggles with depression. Banerjee said, "Deepika Padukone also became a mother recently, right? Great. Now she knows what depression really looks like. Actual depression happens when your sleep breaks, and your kid wakes in the middle of the night at 3 am and the kid wants to eat, poop, or play, at any order." Banerjee also said she was intentionally mocking the actor's depression due to her breakup. Raina also responded to the outrage, by saying, "To everyone who is outraging on X, one request: Could you please outrage in my YouTube comment section so I get some ad revenue from the traction, at least." Also during her performance, Banerjee referenced the 2024 Kolkata rape and murder, which was also deemed insensitive and offensive: "Any Bengalis in the house? See, sab so rahe hain. Nahi. Thak gaye honge na candle march karte karte (Bengalis are sleeping! Let them. Must be tired by holding candle march protests)." The fifth bonus episode, which debuted in June 2024, faced criticism over racist comments made about Arunachal Pradesh. Contestant Jessy Nabam, a native of the state, joked that her people consume dog meat, and sometimes even their own pets. This remark prompted a resident of Arunachal Pradesh to file a complaint, reportedly leading to an FIR being registered, which termed her comments as derogatory and defamatory towards the indigenous people of Arunachal Pradesh. Comedian Jaspreet Singh has sparked significant outrage with a racist joke about Kerala, drawing sharp criticism from Malayalis across social media in the sixth bonus episode and overall, the last episode of the show. Singh said, "Kerala saar...100% literacy, saar!" This incident slowly gained momentum, with many condemning the joke as offensive and derogatory to Kerala's literacy. A video clip resurfaced online where a audience member's girlfriend left the show in tears because her father was going through a heart attack (described as a 'minor heart attack' by contestant) but the contestant remained seated, unbothered, to which Raina joked, "Bhai, kandha dega tabhi wo head degi bhai, aise nahi degi wo [Brother, if you don't give her a shoulder to cry on, she won't give you the head]." Raina received renewed backlash from the joke. People online compared the joke to remarks voiced by audience member, Himanshu Jangra, at Pranit More's crowdwork show.