Felt targeted, cornered: Sunil Pal on Samay-Ranveer episode of Kapil Sharma's show

Sunil Pal has claimed that he felt "cornered and targeted" during his appearance on a special episode of The Great Indian Kapil Show featuring Samay Raina and Ranveer Allahbadia. The comedian alleged that he was invited under the promise of performing a stand-up act, but was instead sidelined while the episode focused on highlighting Samay and Ranveer.

The episode, which premiered on May 2 on Netflix, marked a special appearance by Sunil alongside Samay and Ranveer. However, during a conversation with content creator Suraj Kumar, the comedian shared that he had no prior knowledge that the duo would be part of the same episode.

“I had no idea if Samay would be there. I was told that the episode would have stand-up comedians and they might be there too. I was also told to come and do a stand-up segment there, not even an interview," he said, adding that he had even prepared a 15-minute-long sketch, and the show's director Anukul had finalised it. It was only after reaching the set that he got to know Samay and Ranveer were also on the show, he said.

"I didn’t get a chance to perform my stand-up act. They even cut out the few jokes I cracked,” said Sunil.

Sharing his views on why the makers brought Samay Raina and Ranveer Allahbadia on the show, Sunil Pal claimed that since it was a Netflix show, the platform wanted to highlight the duo amid what he described as their “downfall.”

"By calling them on Kapil Sharma’s show, to further put them in the limelight, they called me to boost TRPs. I was just standing there, didn’t say anything,” he said.

Sunil, who has publicly criticised Samay in the past, also explained that he agreed to appear because it was Kapil Sharma’s show and not specifically an episode centred around Samay or Ranveer.

He added that several top stars, including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, have appeared on the show, and therefore there was nothing unusual about his presence there after being invited by Kapil Sharma’s team.

Sunil further alleged that several portions from the episode, including abusive language and vulgar gestures by Samay and Ranveer, were edited out before streaming.

Why Sunil Pal felt targeted on the show

Taking a dig at judges Navjot Singh Sidhu and Archana Puran Singh, Sunil claimed the atmosphere on set felt biased against him.

“It all became one-sided, I felt cornered and targeted at one point in time. A lot of people also noticed this, people were told purposely not to laugh at my jokes, and give extreme reactions to the other person’s smallest joke, too,” he said.

The comedian also accused Navjot Singh Sidhu of showing favouritism toward Samay Raina during the episode.

According to Sunil, Sidhu praised Samay over what he considered to be a minor joke and even called him “the next Kapil.” He further claimed that Archana Puran Singh was also not laughing at the joke, which made him feel that the reactions on the set were planned and one-sided.

All about the Sunil Pal-Samay Raina feud

The tensions between Sunil and Samay date back to the controversy surrounding India's Got Latent last year, after which Sunil strongly criticised both Samay and Ranveer for their use of abusive language in comedy. He had even referred to Samay as “a terrorist of the comedy genre” in one of his interviews. Samay, on the other hand, has often taken humorous digs at Sunil in response.

During the special episode of The Great Indian Kapil Show, Samay was seen roasting Sunil over his personal hygiene and joking that he had learned abusive words from watching Sunil’s videos.

Despite the ongoing public exchanges, Sunil clarified that he does not hold any personal grudge against Samay. He admitted that while the two have collaborated on advertisements in the past, he was not mentally prepared for the intense roasting that took place during the episode.