Who Is Samay Raina? India's Got Latent Creator And Stand-Up Comedian Who Gained Fame For Kashmir Jokes, Dark Humour, Chess

Samay Raina is one of the most discussed stand-up comics currently, partly due to the controversy that erupted over his widely viral parody show India's Got Latent. However, behind the row is a man who walked the road less traveled and turned it around for himself, becoming one of the fastest-growing YouTubers in India.

Samay is a Kashmiri Pandit. Apart from comedy, he has played a pivotal role in making chess popular among youth. He has a passion for the sport and discusses it extensively in his live streams. Samay shared that he developed an inclination towards chess due to his grandfather.

Samay spoke extensively about being bullied through his school days and how comedy and joking among friends, mostly his juniors, became his safe space. For higher studies, Samay did engineering from Pune in Printing. However, in many of his standup acts, he shared that Printing Engineering had nothing much to offer and he drifted towards stand-up comedy, given his natural flair for comebacks and dry humour.

Early beginnings: Open mic artist to Comistaan 2 winner

By 2017, Samay was a known face in the comedy circles in Pune. He made a name for himself by opening for popular comedians like Jaspreet Singh, Abhishek Upmanyu, Anirban Dasgupta and more. He later moved to Mumbai to pursue stand-up as his full-time career. Here, he became friends with fellow comic Aakash Gupta, both of whom ended up participating in season 2 of the reality show Comistaan (2019). Samay and Aakash were the joint winners of the show and this catapulted him into mainstream comedy business. He won ₹10 lakh as the prize amount.

It was on Prime Video's Comistaan that audiences got accustomed to Samay's dark humour. Ready to release his comedy special and get on with his India tour, he faced a career obstacle in the form of the Covid pandemic. However, Samay turned the setback to his advantage and began live streaming with AIB's Tanmay Bhat and other popular YouTubers. Here, he got more recognition and those who were his fans, had more of Samay to witness. His unfiltered comic style and anecdotes made him stand out from the rest.

An off-beat choice turns lucrative

It was also the time when Samay would meet his India's Got latent partner Balraj Ghai. They streamed live chess together. Coupled with his funny antics, he made watching the sport entertaining. Samay and his streaming friends also collaborated with Agadmator aka Antonio Radić, a popular chess streamer. Influencers like Bhuvan Bam, Yuzvendra Chahal and Carry Minati helped Samay gain more popularity among the masses. Aamir Khan and Arijit Singh also participated in his streams.

One of his most popular collaborations came during this time as he teamed up with Chessbase India founder, Sagar Shah. They streamed chess with comedians and also commented on the online chess olympiad, which India won. Samay and Sagar co-founded Chess Super League where grandmasters and international players also participated. Reportedly, in 2020, his yearly earnings were in the range of ₹20-30 lakh. But, everything was about to change.  

India's Got Latent: A game changer for Samay

Banking on his sky-rocketing popularity, Samay went full throttle as the pandemic restrictions were lifted. He sold packed houses and even performed at corporate events, earning lakhs for a single show. This continued till June 2024, when India's Got Latent was launched. After the parody show went live, Samay's YT subscribers more than doubled in less than two months. According to reports, Samay earned around ₹3-4 crore per episode of India's Got Latent before he was forced to shut down. The show aired 18 episodes so far, with views of each in the 20-30 million range. The show made him one of the fastest-growing Indians on YouTube as well. He also offered membership at ₹59 for Latent subscribers.

Samay has also collaborated with top brands like Zomato , Unacademy, Mama Earth, Samsung and more to boost his income.