Bollywood singer-rapper Badshah voiced out his support for India’s Got Latent host, comedian Samay Raina, amid the huge backlash that he has been facing online. During his performance at a university in Gujarat on Saturday evening, the singer was seen giving Samay a massive shoutout, and it made the audience cheer as well.
The incident took place during Badshah’s performance at Parul University, located in Vadodara, Gujarat. A video from his concert has gone viral in which the ‘Pagal’ singer can be heard shouting, “Free Samay Raina!”, evoking cheers from the crowd.
He did not further elaborate on the issue, but instead, continued with thanking the authorities and students for having him there.
It is to be noted that Badshah’s support to Samay came days after multiple shows of the comedian were cancelled in Gujarat, following the India’s Got Latent controversy. He had four shows scheduled in the state — one in Surat on April 17 and another in Vadodara on April 18. He then had two shows in Ahmedabad on April 19 and 20.
What is the India’s Got Latent controversy?
It all began after Ranveer Allahbadia, who was one of the judges in the episode, asked a contestant, “Would you rather watch your parents have sex for the rest of your life, or would you join in once and stop it forever?”
Samay and Apoorva Mukhija were seen laughing at the supposed joke, and they too were seen using abusive language throughout the episode. This did not go down well with netizens and they slammed the creators for promoting vulgarity online.
Samay Raina issues statement
On February 12, Samay finally ended his silence and issued his first statement on social media, stating that he had taken down all India’s Got Latent videos from his YouTube channel.
“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 (sic),” he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, multiple complaints and FIRs have been filed against Samay, Ranveer and others associated with the show, and the comedian has now been summoned by the Mumbai Police for questioning.
