Samay Raina returned with Season 2 of his highly controversial, divisive, and widely watched show India’s Got Latent last weekend. The first episode featured actors Alia Bhatt and Sharvari, who will soon be seen together in Yash Raj Films’ upcoming spy actioner Alpha. The episode quickly became a talking point online, with clips from the show continuing to dominate social media discussions days after its release.
‘It was pure art’
Now, another behind-the-scenes clip from the episode has surfaced on X. In the video, Alia is seen chatting with Samay, Sharvari, and Samay’s long-time creative collaborator Balraj Singh Ghai. During the conversation, Alia praised Samay’s stand-up special Still Alive, which premiered earlier this year and went on to become the most-watched comedy special on YouTube globally.
Reflecting on the special, Alia said, “In the special, when you talked about your friendship (Samay and Balraj), I could actually see it. It was so nicely explained and expressed. And I was crying over there. So I feel like I know both of you very well because of this special.” She added, “It was really good. It was pure art.”
Listening to the praise, Samay appeared touched and responded with his trademark humour, saying, “Now I’m very nervous as I have to top that.” He then reflected on his approach to stand-up comedy, adding, “I used to always feel that stand-up comedy was about telling jokes. But then I realized that telling jokes is just the skill you need to tell your story through jokes.” Responding to this, Alia observed, “There has to be a little bit of truth in it.”
Samay agreed and elaborated, “You should be able to express yourself while using the tools of stand-up comedy. You should not just go on stage and talk about, ‘This is what I feel.’ It shouldn’t be I just do joke, joke, joke, joke, and then say thank you, that’s not adding anything. I need to know how to write a joke. I need to know how to write a setup, a punchline, and a tag. But I need to know that so I can use it to say what I want to say.”
‘Performed Still Alive 200 times’
Curious about the making of Still Alive, Alia Bhatt asked Samay Raina about the process behind filming the special. Referring to its extensive tour, she said, “So Still Alive, the special you shot, you did it in multiple cities or locations and then taped one and put it out? So the one we saw, you had already done it a couple of times?” To this, Samay replied, “I did it 200 times.” Alia then asked, “But how do you feel it every single time?”
Explaining how he approached the deeply personal segment about his friendship with Balraj, Samay said, “The way I would do it was that everything else in that special, I would write about and think about, except that one chunk. I never wrote that chunk. I never thought about that chunk offstage. I would only do that chunk on stage. I would put myself back in that room, think about that room. I used to just place myself in that room, and that would make me cry every time.”
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Listening to this, Balraj added, “I used to hate listening to the set again and again. I would walk out because I couldn’t take it. I would get goosebumps. The first couple of times, we cried, and after that it was just very intense.”
Samay further explained why the segment remained emotionally effective despite being performed repeatedly. “Even with our normal jokes, we do them 200 times anyway. We still laugh 200 times when we do those jokes. We’re still excited. We know the punchline, but we’re still excited because we’re totally present in that moment. And especially with that chunk, I would never think, ‘If I say this, then I will say that, then I will do this.’ That’s why every time I did it, the message would be the same, but it would come out in different sentences. That’s why it could be conveyed. That’s why it worked.”
He also acknowledged that there were days when the emotional connection wasn’t as strong. “There were also times when my mood wasn’t good, I hadn’t slept well, or I wasn’t feeling great. Then I would just say the lines as they were. But that didn’t make me cry, and it didn’t make the audience cry either. But when it lands, it lands.”
Samay Raina roasts Alia Bhatt on India’s Got Latent 2
Meanwhile, the first episode of India’s Got Latent Season 2 also featured Samay Raina’s trademark roasting humour directed at Alia Bhatt. Introducing her as the biggest celebrity to appear on the show so far, he quipped, “She is the biggest guest we had till now in Latent. Highest point of Latent, lowest point of her career.”
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He followed it up with another quip aimed at the actor, saying, “Feeling nervous sitting next to you, big fan of your… husband.”
Alia Bhatt appeared on the first episode of India's Got Latent Season 2.
(Photo: Netflix)