India's Got Latent's contestants thank 'gentleman and elder brother' Samay Raina after he deletes episodes from YouTube

Contestants of India's Got Latent including comedians Sharon Verma, Bhavya Shah and Kushal Bhanushali called Samay Raina their elder brother as the defendd the comedian, who on Wednesday evening, shared that he has removed all the episodes of the popular online reality show after legal proceedings were initiated against the show following the public outrage after content creator Ranveer Allahbadia's controversial remarks in the show.

Visually impaired comedian Bhavya Shah, who got a movie role after his appearance on the show, referred to Samay as his elder brother and wrote he was grateful to the latter for giving him the platform to showcase his talent. "Did IGL cross a line? It definitely pushed the boundary. Be honest: if you were asked to imagine a blind person 6 months ago, you would have pictured a singer on the train with a begging bowl. Indian media has always shown us as objects of pity, sources of inspiration. Latent was the first time people saw something different: disabled people being goofy and Bakchod and normal. IGL was the platform. Samay was the gentleman. Remember that. P.S. So sorry for saying "disabled"! Mera matlab "differently-abled" tha," he shared via Instagram stories.

Comedian Sharon Verma, both referred to Samay as an "elder brother" who gave them the platform and cited the show as the reason behind their success. "IGL gave me so much man. it was the reason i could actually pursue this dream of doing comedy. cant believe how its turned out. samay’s genuinely been a big brother to us," she wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Similarly visually challenged comedian, Kushal Bhanushali thanked Samay and the show for allowing him to showcase his talent and put him in the limelight. "Igl was my big bang. Thankyou Samay Bhaiya," he wrote on X.

On Wednesday evening, Samay wrote in his statement that recent events have been ‘too much’ to handle for him. He wrote, “Everything that is happening has been too much for me to handle. I have removed all Indias Got Latent videos from my channel. My only objective was to make people laugh and have a good time. I will fully cooperate with all agencies to ensure their inquiries are concluded fairly. Thank you. (folded hands emoji).”

For the uninitiated, on India’s Got Latent's latest episode, Ranveer made a ‘joke’ that did not go down well with viewers. A formal complaint was filed with the Mumbai Commissioner and the Maharashtra Women's Commission against Ranveer, Samay, Apoorva Mukhija and the show's organisers. The complaint is against abusive language being used and obscene remarks made on women for popularity and financial benefit.

Ranveer later apologised for his "inappropriate" remarks that were made in an "insensitive" manner during the YouTube episode of the show. He issued an apology in a video that he shared on his X account hours after facing backlash, saying that "comedy is not his forte" and that "it wasn't cool."