"The Comedy Hunt on YouTube", a web hunt to find the next comedy stars on YouTube in India, has boiled down to the country's 40 top creators who will now compete for the final winning slot.
Leading stand-up comedy group All India Bakchod (AIB) and popular YouTube channel Pretentious Movie Reviews, including other comics will mentor the shortlisted candidates as part of the initiative, launched by Only Much Louder (OML).
"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," AIB's Rohan Joshi said.
Presented by Quikr and powered by Micromax, and co-sponsored by 5 Star, Garnier Men and 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 AIB, Kanan Gill and 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 are put through seven weeks of challenge rounds.
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 groups participating in the hunt.
The entries were not limited to just metros like Mumbai, Delhi but also came from tier-II 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.
Speaking about the response, Ajay Nair, director of 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," he added.
At the end of the weekly challenges, the five top 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 and Biswa, SnG and East India Company. At the end of the finale, the winner of The Comedy Hint will be chosen.
The finale will be held on September 30, 2015 in Mumbai.
