Comedian Abhishek Upmanyu is all set to release his debut comedy special Jealous of Sabziwala on 1 March on his YouTube channel. He’s not the first Indian comedian to release a special on YouTube, but he may be the first one to turn down a million dollars to do so. Sources tell us that Upmanyu rejected a deal from a streaming platform that was worth over $1 million, which would have been one of the biggest single-special deals ever in Indian comedy.

The comedian apparently wanted to keep the special available to as many people as possible rather than hide it behind a streaming platform paywall. He’s already released 12 minutes of the special to watch for free, and fans who sign up for membership of his YouTube channel will get to watch the whole thing on 1 March.

“We figured what [Andrew] Schulz was doing was very interesting business-wise,” says Warren Viegas, CEO of LVC Comedy and Upmanyu’s talent agent. “How they were interacting with audience directly without dependence on third party, which is something that really works for the artist in the long run. It’s a risk but Upmanyu was willing to take the risk.”

The comedian hopes to eventually build his own website and monetise his community directly, a model that has already been perfected by the likes of Schulz. He also hopes to show that this is a sustainable path for other Indian artists as well. The initial signs are good, with the 12-minute clip getting almost 3 million views in 24 hours.  

It’s been a busy start to the year for Upmanyu. Apart from his own special, he also directed Anubhav Singh Bassi’s Bas Kar Bassi, which spent two weeks as the #1 on Amazon Prime Video, beating Ajay Devgn starrer Drishyam to the top spot.