OML's Comedy hunt with AIB, Kanan Gill and Biswa boils down to top 40 comedy stars

OMLs “The Comedy Hunt on YouTube,” India’s first web hunt to find the next comedy stars on YouTube in India has boiled down to India’s top 40 creators, who will now compete for the final winning slot. The hunt saw participation from all over India - with 1578 entries from over 60 cities across India. The three week call for entries saw participation from standalone creators to large group participating in the hunt. The entries were not limited to just metros like Mumbai, Delhi but also from smaller cities like Bhilai, Kanpur, Silvassa, Hoshiarpur, Haridwar and many more small cities. Entries ranged from creators showcasing really random dance moves, to enacting funny dialogues of popular movies, to vox pop, skits, spoofs and sketches.

Presented by Quikr and powered by Micromax, and co-sponsored by 5 Star, Garnier Men & Royal Challenge Sports Drink, the three-month-long hunt will now move to the next phase of challenges for these 40 shortlisted finalists. Every week, for seven weeks, these Super-40, will be given a challenge to make a video on a particular topic or in a particular style. Leading Comedy Creators such as All India Bakchod, Kanan Gill & Biswa Kalyan Rath, SnG Comedy, East India Comedy, Jose Covaco, Abish Mathew, Aditi Mittal and Shudh Desi Endings will mentor these top 40 shortlisted participants and work with them to help sharpen their skills as they’re put through seven weeks of challenge rounds.

Speaking about the response - Ajay Nair, Director of Only Much Louder (OML) said, “We’re really overwhelmed by the participation we saw in the hunt from all across India. It’s incredible to see the diversity of creators in India and how their definition of comedy differs from what we know of mainstream comedy content. That is the beauty of a platform like YouTube, where everyone can participate and showcase their talent and have a chance to succeed. Our mentors have their job cut out to make these top 40 creators shine and make India laugh with their heroics as we move into the challenge rounds.”

Speaking about the task ahead and the experience so far, Rohan Joshi from All India Bakchod said, “Comedy is tough to do and we were thrilled at the number of entries that came in, from all over the country. For 1,500 people to take the time out to create an audition video and send it in is a huge deal. Now working with these diverse creators and creating more random videos is going to be a ton of fun.”

The final 40 creators were shortlisted by the mentors on the basis of originality & creativity of content and ultimately their ability to make people laugh. Moving onto the next round, these Super-40 will now go through seven weeks of challenge round by mentors over the next two months. Mentors will challenge the participants keeping in mind their own unique style of comedy and come up with different themes to make videos for each week. Every week, contestants will be eliminated on the basis of the success of their challenge videos.

Kanan Gill, the popular YouTuber from Pretentious movie reviews channel, said, “All of us were slightly apprehensive when the entry submission for the comedy hunt was to begin. What if no one was interested? What if people didn't take it seriously? Those fears were more than assuaged by the flood of entries. What was especially heartening that the entries were in no way limited to the metros. The consensus so far? People are very funny, and they're serious about comedy.”

At the end of the weekly challenges, top 5 contestants will be flown to Mumbai for the grand finale, where they will get a chance to share the stage with their mentors like AIB, Kanan & Biswa, SnG & East India Company. At the end of the finale the winner of The Comedy Hunt will be chosen.

Channel links of the 40 shortlisted entries: