Over the last few years, Manjeet Sarkar has made a name for himself as a comedian and political satirist who uses comedy to shine a spotlight on caste discrimination and the Dalit experience. The Bengaluru-based comedian—who was voted Next Big Thing at the 2024 DeadAnt Comedy Awards—has taken his recent hour Untouchable on tour across India and overseas, even being invited by the United Nations to perform at an event marking 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human rights.

Sarkar’s comedy offers a unique perspective on rural and urban life, class and caste, nudging the Indian comedy scene’s predominantly savarna, upper-class patrons to interrogate their own biases. And that’s precisely what he wants to do with his debut special Let’s Talk About It (releasing on his YouTube channel on 26 January), on an even larger scale. “My goal was to reach as many people as possible so I can address them directly,” he says. “I wanted to address the upper-caste rich crowd which is why I decided to shoot in Mumbai.”

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In addition to pushing the envelope with his material, Sarkar has teamed up with veteran standup comedy director Karan Asnani (known for directing standup specials for Anirban Dasgupta, Abhishek Upmanyu, Jaspreet Singh and Chirayu Mistry) to add some visual flair to his special. Divided into three chapters, the special will feature three different colours to reflect the particular mood of the section.

“I was self-producing it so I didn’t have a lot of money to offer to Asnani but he did it for the material,” Sarkar told us. “That was the best compliment for me. I have always wanted to work with him so this was really special.”

But Sarkar’s excitement is tempered by concerns about potential backlash to his anti-caste comedy. “I’m a little bit nervous but mostly scared,” he says. His apprehension stems from the hate comments he received when he dropped his first-ever YouTube video in June last year, titled Dalit’s Gangajal. “It was insane,” he tells us. “Every scroll was just filled with gaalis. And if that was their reaction to a 10-minute video, this hour-long special has a lot more that they can get offended by.”

So, to safeguard himself from this anticipated backlash Sarkar has had to make some tough decisions. Under the guidance of his lawyer and fellow comedian Masoom Rajwani, the comedian has cut out 30 minutes of his most audacious material from the special. But there’s still plenty of scathing political satire and anecdotes from his childhood that shaped his beliefs in the hour-long special.

Alongside the special, the comedian is working on the release of his documentary Untouchable: Laughing Out Caste. Directed by Sarkar, the documentary follows his journey from Chattisgarh’s conflict-ridden Bastar district to becoming one of the leading Dalit comedians in the country. He also explores the process of finding humour in sensitive topics including mental health, caste discrimination and religion in the film. The hour-long documentary will feature footage from his 2023 national tour, alongside conversations he’s had with friends, relatives, Dalit artists and fellow comedians.

Sarkar will be jetting off for a North America tour in March to screen this film as well as perform some standup comedy. “It’s like a combined experience,” he said. “And I’m also performing mostly new material. So it’ll be fun to see what people think of that.”

Currently though, Sarkar has his eyes set on 26 January. “Right now I can’t really think what I’ll do after the special till I know what the reaction is,” he said. “But if it does well it just means more open mics, more jokes and more comedy.”