Comedian and YouTuber Samay Raina has released his debut stand-up comedy special, Still Alive, offering a raw, unfiltered reflection on the 2025 India’s Got Latent controversy that led to police cases, death threats, and the temporary shutdown of his popular show.

The hour-long special, which premiered on YouTube on April 7, 2026, marks Raina’s first major public appearance since the backlash that erupted in February 2025.

In it, the Kashmir-born comedian addresses the fallout from a controversial joke made by guest Ranveer Allahbadia (popularly known as BeerBiceps) during an episode of India’s Got Latent.

Allahbadia’s explicit remark about parents triggered widespread outrage, multiple FIRs across states, including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Assam, and intense media scrutiny.

Raina, who was in the midst of a sold-out 50,000-ticket US tour at the time, recounts performing shows in Seattle while experiencing severe anxiety attacks, heart palpitations, and vertigo.

“I was just performing out of memory,” he says in the special.

“Nobody in that room could tell [I was breaking down].”

He describes the escalation in stark detail: his phone number being leaked, death threats to his family and co-panelists, and police raids, including Assam Police arriving at an old student PG in Pune linked to his Jio number.

Raina also reveals he overdosed on melatonin in an attempt to sleep through the crisis, later waking to further chaos, including reports of goons vandalising the Habit comedy club where his shows were shot.

Beyond the controversy, Still Alive delves deeply into Raina’s personal life.

He shares his family’s traumatic history as Kashmiri Pandits who fled the Valley in the early 1990s amid militancy, only to face bullets at their home in 1998 before relocating to Hyderabad.

Raina recounts being racially bullied as the “gora” Kashmiri kid in a prestigious Telugu-medium school, hiding torn shirts and bruises from his parents.

The most poignant moments involve his family.

Raina breaks down, describing video calls with his mother during the height of the crisis, and credits his father, a former DD Kashmir news reporter, as his emotional anchor.

“Shor hi toh band hua hai, tu nahi band hua,” his father told him.

Raina urges male audience members to express love to their fathers, noting that many Indian men, including himself, struggle with emotional vulnerability.

Throughout the special, Raina reflects candidly on cancel culture, the pressures of maintaining an online persona, and the “game” of Indian internet comedy.

He admits to deliberately cultivating a “gaandu” (villainous) character for creative freedom, while acknowledging the pressure to maintain a “clean” image.

He defends the disproportionate reaction to BeerBiceps’ single joke while acknowledging his own past missteps, including a controversial old tweet.

Raina also highlights a powerful moment from the original episode involving fellow panellist Apoorva Makhija (Rebel Kid), praising her sharp comeback as a standout instance of a woman standing up for herself.

In the closing segment, the comedian announces his intention to return with bolder, unfiltered content.

“I want to do a wild, wild [expletive] show,” he declares, teasing a potential revival of India’s Got Latent without the heavy editing of the past.

He ends on an optimistic, motivational note, telling viewers that time spent with friends and family, not a 9-to-5 grind, is the truly “productive” part of life.

Still Alive has already garnered strong early reactions on social media, with fans praising Raina’s vulnerability and resilience.

The special arrives after Raina completed highly successful international tours in the US, Europe, and Australia, selling over 300,000 tickets.

Raina’s team has not issued an official statement beyond the special’s release, but in the video, he expresses gratitude for surviving the ordeal stronger.

“I am so glad it happened,” he says.

“This has made me wiser.”

The full special is now streaming for free on Samay Raina’s official YouTube channel.