With his new stand-up special Still Alive, Samay Raina returned to the stage and revisited the fallout of the India’s Got Latent controversy that briefly halted his momentum last year. The controversy, which erupted in February 2025 after YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia made an objectionable joke on Raina’s show, led to multiple FIRs and intense scrutiny online. While Raina has addressed the incident in his special, he recently opened up about the ambitious plans he had set in motion before the controversy brought everything to a halt.
In a conversation with Chalchitra Talks, Raina revealed that before the controversy, he was actively building what he envisioned as a creator-led OTT ecosystem.
“I had planned a lot of shows. I was on my way to making an OTT platform of crazy content. I had even built an app, and I had started YouTube memberships — I had gained a huge number of members, even YouTube was surprised. They had no idea a creator would monetise memberships like this. I was like, I can now make an OTT,” he said.
At that point, things were moving quickly. The audience was growing, the system was working, and Raina was ready to scale.
“I hired five people to create shows. I had started calling everyone — you make this show, you make that show, make a poetry show, make a rap show — I will fund it, it will go on my YouTube members-only. My YouTube membership would become like an OTT. I will make an app — if you have YouTube membership, you click on that app and now you are on my OTT platform.”
Samay Raina’s OTT shows
He then described the kind of content he was developing — unconventional, chaotic, and designed to go viral.
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“I was going to make very funny shows on it. Like, I wanted to do a show with Puneet Superstar — ‘Decoded with Puneet Superstar’. Puneet Superstar would be with four people, and in every episode, four people would come and teach him something. Like in the first episode, LGBTQ people would come and teach him about the importance and the movement.”
“Puneet Superstar would listen to everything, and then he would have to give a speech in a 500-seater about what he learned about LGBTQ. So Puneet Superstar decodes.”
And that wasn’t all. Another concept leaned heavily into real-life chaos.
“Another was ‘Deepak Kalaal ka Insaaf’. Deepak Kalaal and I would sit on a panel, and real property dispute cases would come in. I had even spoken to a lawyer — whatever crazy cases you have, give them my number, tell them to call me. I will pitch them this idea, we will pay them well, and we will bring out their real conflicts and solve them together. A viral show.”
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Content creators Deepak Kalaal and Puneet Superstar are known for their eccentric, often cringe-style content.
‘It took away my motivation’
But just as these ideas were taking shape, the controversy struck—and everything paused.
“I had 8–10 ideas like this, and then this happened. It took away my motivation at that time. I want to do something for them (members) sooner or later because they really supported me.” Raina said he coped during the controversy by quietly turning to his most loyal audience.
“During the controversy, I didn’t post anything — I would just drop a heart on members-only. My mental state was very bad at that time. I just wanted something positive. I would post a heart just to read the comments, and people would give me love.”
That small gesture became a lifeline.
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“I used to feel that there is love for me, because in your weakest moment, you just need some hope that everything is not lost, that people are there for you. Whenever I felt low, I would drop a heart so people would comment, and I could read them and feel better.”
This article contains personal reflections on mental well-being and the impact of public scrutiny. While these experiences are shared for informational and entertainment purposes, they are not a substitute for professional mental health support.
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