India's Stand-up Revolution: Why Comics Chose Freedom Over Netflix & Prime Video

On July 7 this year, comedian Kanan Gill released his full-length, two-hour comedy special called ‘Is This It.’ But unlike his previous two specials, it wasn’t on a premium streaming service like Amazon's Prime Video, or Netflix. It was a private stream on Insider.in.

Since then, I have been noticing a strange pattern in Indian stand-up specials. Many other names like Abhishek Upmanyu, Kunal Kamra, Akash Mehta, Daniel Fernandes, Punit Pania, and Prashasti Singh have dropped their comedy specials independently on YouTube, or as a private video stream.

So why are comedians ditching premium streaming services and shiftting self-releases? The Quint explains.

Stand-up Comedy: From a Subculture, to a Scene, to an Industry

Since the time of audio cassettes being played in taxis and TV shows like The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, stand-up comedy in India has gone from being a subculture to a scene, and is now a full-fledged industry. 

In January 2017, artist management company OML signed a 14 special deal with Amazon Prime Video, which was launched in India only a few months ago.

This was considered to be the first wave of Indian stand-up specials on streaming services. And since then, more than 50 comedians have put out their full-length comedy specials on these streaming services.

Comedians were getting their material out, management companies were making money, and audiences got to watch their favorite comedians. Everything was going great.

But was all this comedy actually making people laugh? 

Quantity Over Quality: The 'Sabzi Mandi' of Stand-up Specials 

"In India, specials are being sold like a sabzi mandi. Specials are being sold in bulk."

Navin Noronha, Comedian (Released his special 'The Good Child' on YouTube)

If OML's co-founder Ajay Nair is to be believed, the biggest criteria of finding comedians for the 2017 Prime Video deal was that whoever had an hour of jokes ready, would get a special.

The newly established standup comedy scene was so insular at that time, that you had a very thin chance of even being entertained by a streamer unless you already were signed to a company that had prior connections in the industry. 

"I might have written 2 specials where I felt I had a shot with a streamer. There are a lot of gatekeepers. You need to have an agent. The agent needs to know someone. They’ll get to your product after they get through your Instagram followers."

Aakash Mehta, Comedian (Released his specials 'No Smoking' and 'Nasty' on YouTube)

A comedian who wishes to stay anonymous told me, “Everyone who got a special wasn’t ready with a special. In OTT, there are no executives who understand comedy. So, they just wrote them (comics) a cheque. But they performed poorly. Some specials from the initial OML batch have views that are in the 3 digits.” 

So long story short, the first set of comedy specials on Prime Video didn’t have the financial or cultural impact that they would have wanted. 

Life After 2020: Movies In, Specials Out   

Online platforms were always seen as a Plan B. It was thought that when movies would exit theaters, OTTs would become an additional revenue stream. Bollywood stars weren't that enthusiastic about OTTs, especially initially. But everything changed in 2020.

It’s only during the COVID pandemic that actors were finally forced to open themselves up to OTTs. Movies like 'Gulabo Sitabo' and 'Coolie No. 1' were released directly on Amazon Prime. 

In 2023, Jio Cinema announced 100 original titles with a cast of Varun Dhawan, Amitabh Bachchan, Kartik Aryan and the who’s who of Bollywood 'theatrical' stars.

So, it would make financial sense for the streamers to prioritise long-form, suspenseful, cinematic web shows over an hour of just a person with a mic telling jokes.

Shhh: The Dark ‘Tandav’ of Censorship

“Gone are the days when a comic just had to be good. I’m queer, I’m an atheist, I’m very political and very vocal. So, none of my material would fly on streamers. And after the Munawar arrest, there’s no way.  We have to really be careful when we talk.”

Navin Noronha, Comedian

Indian comedy has had a weird relationship with people taking offence to a joke made on stage. While the corporate world is never one to take risks, online standup comedy was still niche enough for people to ignore.

But two events happened in January 2021, that changed everything.

On 1 January 1 2021, Munawar Farooqui was arrested after a complaint by Eklavya Singh Gaud, the son of a BJP MP. The comedian ended up spending close to a month in jail because of a joke he didn’t even crack on stage. 

And something equally eerie was happening with the streamers’ as well.

Amazon Prime Video released its political drama 'Tandav' on 15 January 2021. 

After incessant trolling, BJP MLA Ram Kadam filed an official complaint against the director and producers of the series.  This led to scenes being cut from the show and the director issuing an ‘unconditional apology.'

For streamers, it was the first time they saw a dent in what was considered a reign of ‘censorship-free content’. And Farooqui's arrest, followed by controversies surrounding Vir Das and Neville Shah made OTT platforms realise that everything's not hunky-dory in comedy.

“A Netflix won’t produce a special for Varun Grover, or Punit Pania. AIB's political satire show also got cancelled.”

Kunal Kamra, Comedian (Released his special 'Be Like' on YouTube)

'Main Khush Hoon:' An Artist's Quest for Freedom

“A kid from Faridabad sent me 4 bucks and messaged saying, ‘I don’t have more money, but I didn’t think I should watch it for free.’ And I don’t mind it. What I want is an emotional investment more than a monetary one.”

Aakash Mehta, Comedian

Some of today's biggest names like Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanan Gill, Anubhav Singh Bassi, all were, at one point, secure in their "conventional" careers in engineering/MBA/law etc. But they became comedians because they had an innate desire to express themselves on the mic.

“Everyone in the scene knows that with streamers, the money is really good. As it’s a one-time payment. It’s good enough to start investing in a house in Bombay.”

Navin Noronha, Comedian

Now one would think that since OTTs seem to have withdrawn their hand, comedians would be in despair. But, a chat with comedians was enough to put all such assumptions to rest.

When asked about the revenue and recovery model of his special Be Like, Kunal Kamra told The Quint, “Freedom ka koi recovery model nahi hota (freedom has no recovery model)."

One factor common with many comedians who self-released their specials was the access they had to video analytics.  

Warren Viegas, who manages comedians like Abhishek Upmanyu and Anubhav Bassi told The Quint that even he doesn’t know exactly how many people watched Bassi’s Amazon special ‘Bas Kar Bassi.' He was just given vague metrics and top-10 lists.

But Rajat Chauhan says that he knows exactly which jokes worked, and which didn’t, based on his special’s drop-off rate. He released his special 'My Crush Stories' on YouTube.

Wave of Independent Specials Bound to Inspire Young Artists

For the comedy fraternity, this wave of independent specials is bound to inspire younger artists to take their voices in their own hands and reduce the dependence on large corporations.

A source has told The Quint that even Anubhav Bassi, whose first special was released on Amazon Prime, is considering self-releasing his next special. His close friend, Abhishek Upmanyu, has already dropped his special on his own, and by doing so, according to his manager, “made a good decision, economically.” 

Others say that since comedy is inherently a live artform, it’s good that attention is being diverted from big budget specials, and more people would now be able to leverage their following on YouTube to sell tickets in the real world.  

In a world where big corporations are no longer interested in paying for comedy, this threshold can finally be met. 

"Support live comedy. That’s where the magic is happening. It’s not happening on YouTube. It’s happening live in front of you. And it’s worth more than anything you’ll watch alone in your bathroom while you’re taking a dump."

Aakash Mehta, Comedian