For over a century, thousands of men and women all over the country risked and dedicated their lives to the fight for Indian Independence. They shed blood, sweat and tears as they fought with their fists and intellect. The British were forced out. A constitution was written and a government was formed. All so that Rahul from Ghatkopar West could crack a (bad) dead baby joke if that’s how he chooses to spend his Friday night.
A little harsh? Maybe. Despite the immense scrutiny and pressure not to offend that they deal with, Indian comedians do have a recent history of standing up to fight for the causes they believe in (or at least some of them). On India’s 77th Independence Day, we’re celebrating those comedians who used their voice and platform to push for change and help those more disadvantaged than them. Good on you, mitron!
ABIJIT GANGULY – #OPTOUTFORINDIA
Four years ago, Abijit Ganguly decided to speak to his fan base about India’s ‘opt-in’ approach to organ donation: where potential organ donors have to explicitly pledge their organs to be donated upon death. Ganguly champions the opt-out model. Here, consent to donate organs is assumed and people can opt out instead. So he took a break from his regular comedy programming to drop this essential PSA.
“For one, I just want to try and get it to a mainstream conversation and get people to talk about it and understand,” he told DeadAnt. “Even if that’s all I can accomplish for now, it’s enough. Implementation will follow.”
The advantages of the opt-out policy include roping in those who don’t have a problem with donating their organs but won’t opt in out of laziness or ignorance. It would also reduce the black marketing of organs and finally—because opt-out doesn’t mandate organ donation—it also safeguards the individual’s choice in case they choose not to donate organs.
NEVILLE SHAH – STREAM/STAND UP FOR SANITY
During the peak of COVID-19’s second wave, Neville Shah brought together three clinical psychologists to answer questions about mental health for the first of five insightful Stream For Sanity videos that he streamed on YouTube. Dr. Narendra Kinger, the founder of mental health NGO Talk To Me, was one of those three. Two years later, Dr. Kinger, Talk To Me and Shah decided to build on that initial success and organise a fundraiser live show for the cause of mental health awareness.
Held at Mumbai’s Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir, the sold-out show was attended by 700 people and featured performances by Neville Shah, Rohan Joshi, Ashish Shakya, Sumaira Shaikh, Azeem Banatwalla, Atul Khatri, Sumukhi Suresh, Kautuk Srivastava, Abish Mathew and more!
KANEEZ SURKA – STAND UP FOR INDIA
In early 2020, a rolling lineup of 15 comedians assembled at the Rang Mandir in Mumbai to perform for an 800-member audience. The fundraiser show, titled Stand Up For India, was organised in the midst of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, and aimed to raise funds for organisations that raised awareness of political issues or provided legal aid to peaceful protesters. The brainchild of lawyer Amshula Prakash and comedian Kaneez Surka, Stand Up For India’s first show in January 2020 raised money for the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), which seeks “to ensure that Indian citizens can use the Internet with liberties guaranteed by the Constitution”. Tickets were sold out within three hours of the announcement.
“We scrolled through Instagram to see who’s shouting about this right now, and those were the ones who got on the list,” Surka told DeadAnt at the time. A couple of months later, they would follow up with Stay Home For India, a star-studded livestream that raised over Rs. 24 lakhs for COVID-19 frontline workers.
TANMAY BHAT, SAIMAN SAYS – TREEMATHON
For Republic Day 2020, Tanmay Bhat teamed up with Mumbai YouTuber Saiman Says to plant over 4,000 trees in and around Aarey Colony in Mumbai, replacing the 2000+ trees that Aarey Forest had lost to a controversial metro construction project the previous year. The Treemathon was an eight-hour live-stream where the duo were joined by fellow comedians and YouTubers in an effort to raise money for TreeSena—an initiative by Saiman Says—and Mission Green Mumbai.
Bhat and Saiman managed to raise around INR 4,20,000, which ensured that nearly 1,000 trees would be planted.
KUNAL KAMRA – PETITION AGAINST AMENDMENT TO IT RULES, 2021
This year, Kunal Kamra challenged an amendment to the Information Technology Rules, 2021 that allows the central government to identify “fake news” about itself on social media platforms and mandates the platforms to take the content down.
Notified in April, the amendment empowers the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEiTY) to establish a fact-checking unit that can “identify fake or false or misleading online content in respect to any business of the Central Government.” Once identified, online intermediaries will have to take down such content unless they wish to give up the legal immunity they currently have for hosting third-party content on their platforms.
Kamra challenged the amendment, pleading that the changes would amend the IT Rules in a way that violates prior judgments of the Supreme Court, has a “chilling effect” on the people, and is beyond the legal authority of the ministry with respect to intermediary safe harbour provisions of the IT Act, 2000 and the fundamental right to equality and free speech under Articles 14 and 19 respectively. The case is still ongoing, so keep your eyes and ears open.
KANEEZ SURKA, TANMAY BHAT, SAMAY RAINA – SHOW UP FOR INDIA
A year after Stand Up For India, Kaneez Surka and Amshula Prakash teamed up once again—this time with the help of OML—to set up two-day COVID-19 charity event Show Up For India. The event was hosted by Tanmay Bhat and Samay Raina on their respective YouTube channels, and featured a stellar line-up including Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanan Gill, Prashasti Singh, Aishwarya Mohanraj, Aadar Mallik, Varun Thakur, Zakir Khan and even some Bollywood stars like Richa Chadda, Soha Ali Khan, Bhumi Pednekar, Konkona Sensharma, Kunal Khemu and Saqib Saleem.
“It was such an amazing feeling because this time the format was different,” Raina told DeadAnt. “Everyone came and hosted their own bits and it felt like a proper show. It felt like the entire community came together to fight for this cause.”
Show Up for India raised a whopping Rs. 62 lakh to support Give India and the Hemkunt Foundation during the second wave.
MITHILESH ‘MYTHPAT’ PATANKAR – MASK ON INDIA
Just a month prior to Show Up For India, comedians, gaming streamers and influencers came together for the Mask On India charity stream held on Mithilesh ‘MythPat’ Patankar’s YouTube channel. Organised by Opraahfx and Villager Esports, and hosted by Patankar and ‘Slayypoint’, Mask On India featured Tanmay Bhat, Munawar Faruqui, Samay Raina, Abish Mathew, ‘GamerFleet’, Kusha Kapila, Dolly Singh, ‘Saiman Says’ and ‘BeYouNick’.
Over the course of seven hours the group live-streamed games like Minecraft Showdown, Skribbl.io, GTA Race, Skribbl.io and Among Us to raise more than Rs. 50 lakh for GiveIndia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, there are many pandemic entries in here, but don’t tell us for a second you didn’t think about shooting your shot with someone way out of your league ’cause we were all going to die anyway…
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