Samay Raina, comedian and creator of India's Got Latent show, is receiving a huge backlash over a joke made by a female contestant over actress Deepika Padukone's depression.
Seemingly unfazed by the criticism, Raina responded with a playful remark, urging the netizens to "outrage in his comment section so that he could get some ad revenue out of it".
The comedian posted an Instagram story along with a Reddit notification regarding the controversy, which read, "Comedian's joke on Deepika's depression sparks outrage." Responding to it, Samay Raina remarked, "To everyone who is outraging on Twitter, one request: Could you please outrage in my YouTube comment section so I get some ad revenue from the traction, at least?"
What was the controversy about?
In the latest episode of India's Got Latent, a female contestant named Bunty Banerjee, joked over Deepika Padukone's motherhood and depression.
"Deepika Padukone also became a mother recently, right? Great, now she knows what depression really looks like", she said, following which, judges including Raina himself started laughing hysterically.
After a pause, Banerjee continued, "I'm not trying to insult breakup-wala depression...".
The remarks immediately drew irk on social media, with netizens slamming the contestant and calling the remarks "insensitive". Many highlighted that the comments trivialized clinical depression - which is a grave stigmatised illness.
Pertinent to note that actress Deepika Padukone, who recently embraced motherhood with the birth of her daughter, has been verbal about her struggles with depression. In 2015, she formed The Live Love Laugh Foundation to raise awareness on mental health in India.
