Indian podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia, known online as BeerBiceps, has landed in legal trouble over coarse comments he made on a comedy show.
Allahbadia, 31, recently appeared on an episode of YouTube comedy show India's Got Latent, helmed by comedian Samay Raina. On the show, he asked a contestant: “Would you rather watch your parents have sex for the rest of your life or join in once to make it stop?”
The show itself is a play on popular reality TV series India’s Got Talent. Each episode features a different set of celebrity judges and Raina as the sole constant, focuses on humour that is often called out on social media for being “crass”, and uses abusive language.
Several videos of Allahbadia’s question went viral on social media almost immediately, with most reactions calling his statement offensive and crude.
Who is Ranveer Allahbadia?
Allahbadia started out as a fitness and lifestyle content creator in August 2015 before moving to podcasting in 2019. The online influencer has over nine million followers on three Instagram accounts, and over 18 million subscribers on his YouTube channels.
He has interviewed celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even Indian ministers like former education minister Smriti Irani, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, external affairs minister S Jaishankar, and former Delhi chief minister Atishi.
In March 2024, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi awarded Allahbadia the 'Disruptor of the Year’ prize at the first edition of the National Creators Award.
Is Allahbadia in legal trouble?
One of the first reactions came from journalist and lyricist Neelesh Misra, who called out the judges for “zero sense of responsibility” and social media platforms for rewarding such content.
“Meet the perverted creators who are shaping our country’s creative economy. I am sure each one has a following of millions. This content is not designated as adult content – it can be seen with ease even by a child if the algorithm takes him or her there,” he wrote on X. “The creators or the platform have zero sense of responsibility. I am also not surprised at all that four people at the desk – and lots in the audience – celebrated this and had a great laugh. You, the audience, normalised and celebrated this and people like these.”
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed the issue, saying: “I have come to know about it. I have not seen it yet. Things have been said and presented in a wrong way. Everyone has freedom of speech, but our freedom ends when we encroach upon the freedom of others. In our society, we have made some rules, and if someone violates them, it is absolutely wrong and action should be taken against them.”
Congress party member Supriya Shrinate wrote on X: “This isn’t creative. It’s pervert. And we can’t normalise perverse behaviour as cool. The fact that this sick comment met loud applause must worry us all.”
In addition to the backlash on social media, police complaints were filed in financial capital Mumbai and Guwahati city in the northeastern state of Assam against Allahbadia, Raina, an influencer named Apoorva Mukhija who was part of the panel, and India’s Got Latent for promoting obscenity.
While the police in Mumbai are still conducting an inquiry, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shared on X that a First Information Report, the first step in any police procedure on the commission of a cognizable offence, had been filed.
In the wake of the backlash, Allahbadia posted an apology on Monday. “I shouldn't have said what I said on India's got latent. I'm sorry,” he said in a video. “My comment wasn't just inappropriate, it wasn’t even funny. Comedy is not my forte, I am just here to say sorry. Many of you have asked if this is how I want to use my platform. Obviously this is not how I wish to use it. I’m not going to give any context or justification or reasoning behind whatever happened. I am just here for an apology. I personally had a lapse in judgement. It wasn't cool on my part.
“The podcast is watched by people of all ages, I don't want to be the kind of person that takes that responsibility lightly and family is the last thing I would ever disrespect.”
The issue continued to escalate, however, with local media reporting that a Mumbai police team visited Allahbadia’s home on Tuesday and Priyanka Chaturvedi, a member of parliament, saying she would raise the issue in the national legislature.
“Any abusive language in the name of comedy content crosses limits is not acceptable. You get a platform, that doesn't mean that you will utter anything. He is someone with millions of subscribers, every political leader has sat in his podcast. PM has given him an award,” she said.
“As a member of standing committee of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, I will raise this issue.”
The video of the episode featuring Allahbadia was taken off YouTube on Tuesday following a request from the National Human Rights Commission India member Priyank Kanoongo.
“We have taken cognizance upon receiving a complaint against some YouTube channel that they are using abusive language, they are using pervert content on their YouTube channel and through this they are actually polluting young minds,” Mr Kanoongo was quoted as saying by ANI.
“It is against the modesty of women. They are also indulged in some activities which are prima facie violative and they are passing racist comments against some ethnic groups in India.
“So, we have issued a notice to YouTube to take down all these types of content and inform concerned police authorities so that they can start penal action against these persons.”
The chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Vijaya Rahatkar, urged the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to issue guidelines for streaming platforms amid “the increasing prevalence of obscene content”.
The Independent has reached out to Allahbadia and Raina for comment.
How have people reacted?
As the issue continued to gain steam, the tone of the criticism changed, with many people questioning the hullabaloo over a YouTuber’s comments while several media and political personalities make hate speech with no punishment.
“What is being done today in the name of dank comedy is pure nonsense. The only purpose is to shock and disgust audiences for views which is having a disastrous impact on the moral development of our youth,” YouTuber Dhruv Rathee said.
He added, however, that state interference “is not the solution as it may usher in a harsh censorship regime. Instead, we need to pressurize content creators to make better content”.
I’ve always been strongly against abusive and vulgar language. In the 1000+ videos, shorts and reels that I have made, you won’t find a single abusive word for anyone.
— Dhruv Rathee (@dhruv_rathee) February 10, 2025
What is being done today in the name of dank comedy is pure nonsense. The only purpose is to shock and disgust…
“It’s getting more and more bizarre. Now, Mumbai police has landed at Ranveer Allahbadia house as FIRs are filed against him across the country. Doesn’t the outrage factory have better things to do? The guy has apologised. Do any of our serial hate speech makers ever do that? One of them has just won an assembly seat in Delhi by a huge margin in fact. Time to take a chill pill! And for the cops to actually catch the real criminals around us!” asked veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
