The Great Indian Laughter Challenge
| The Great Indian Laughter Challenge | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Akshay Sharma |
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language(s) | Hindi |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | approximately 48 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | STAR One |
| Picture format | SDTV: 480i |
| Original airing | 2005 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Laughter Knights |
| Related shows | Comedy Circus |
The Great Indian Laughter Challenge is the first and one of the most successful stand-up comedy shows on Indian television. It is a competition of stand-up comedians that is presented on STAR One. All the four seasons were conceived and created by Pankaj Saraswat of Violet Picture Company. Produced by Endemol India, the fourth series of the show launched on June 6, 2008.
It ran through four seasons where stand-up comedians and performers came together and showed their comedy skills to judges, live audience and people. The show was judged by Shekhar Suman, an eminent TV personality and Navjot Singh Sidhu, a famous former cricketer and cricket commentator known for his humorous "Sidhuisms."[1] The show's initial episodes were hosted by Parizaad Kolah Marshall and later she was replaced by Shonali Nagrani. The set was designed by noted Bollywood production designer Nitin Chandrakant Desai.[2]
Seasons
In the first season, Sunil Pal was the winner and Ahsaan Qureshi was runner up. In the second season contestants from Pakistan were present and the winner Rauf Lala was from Pakistan. The third season was won by Kapil Sharma from Amritsar. Many other talented comedians like Sudesh Lehari, Rajiv Thakur, Jassi Kochar, Khayaali,Dipoo Srivastava, Raju Srivastava and Chandan Prabhakar have appeared in the show.
The first two seasons were followed by another show, The Great Indian Laughter Champions, which included top performers of the previous shows. Here also the judges were Sidhu and Shekar including some celebrity guests as well.
The fourth season features judges Navjot Singh Sidhu and popular actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who has replaced Shekhar Suman. Recently the first woman to participate was Aarti Kandpal. The fourth season's finalists were Rasbihari Gaur, Bharti Singh, Suresh Albela, and a duo from Pakistan. The winner for the fourth season after a tough laughter war was Suresh Albela.
Challenge I results
- Sunil Pal (nander)
- Ahsaan Qureshi (Seoni, MP)
- Raju Srivastava (Kanpur)
- Naveen Prabhakar (Kanpur)
- Bhagwant Mann (Sangrur, Punjab)
- Parag Kansara (Vadodara, Gujarat)
Challenge II results
- Rauf Lala (Larkana, Pakistan)
- Rajeev Nigam (Mumbai, India)
- Khayali (Chandigarh) and Pratap Faujdar (Agra, UP)
- Irfan Malik and Ali Hassan (Karachi, Pakistan)
- Dr. Tushar Shah (Mumbai, India)
- Rajkumar Javkar- Rancho (Mumbai, India)
Challenge III results
- Kapil Sharma (Amritsar, Panjab)[3]
- Chandan Prabhakar (Amritsar)
- Sudesh Lehri (Amritsar)
- Parvez Siddiqui (Karachi, Pakistan)
- Rajiv Thakur (Amritsar)
- Kuldeep Dubey (Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh)
Challenge IV results
- Suresh Albela (Kota, Rajasthan) (Winner)
- Sikandar Sanam and Wali Sheikh (Karachi, Pakistan)
- Bharti Singh (Amritsar, Punjab)
- Rasbihari Gaur (Ajmer, Rajasthan)
- Shrikant Maski
- Ramdas Yeole(Amravati)
- Rehan jamlal (Karachi Sindh Pakistan)
- Talal Qasim Khan (Mailsi Punjab Pakistan)
References
- ↑ "Charge of the laugh brigade". The Telegraph. November 21, 2005. Retrieved March 2, 2013.
- ↑ Javed Jaffrey’s spoof on budget desires Screen (magazine), Chaya Unnikrishnan. March 03, 2006.
- ↑ "The Great Punjabi Challenge". The Tribune. September 16, 2007.