Sunil Pal

Sunil Pal won the first season of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, which sounds like a footnote and is actually a landmark. That show, in 2005 on STAR One, is where stand-up comedy stopped being a niche in India and became something a mainstream audience watched on purpose. He won it. A whole generation of comedians came through the door it opened.

Born in Mursa Chandrapur, Maharashtra, in 1975, he has worked since as a comedian, actor and voice actor. In 2010 he wrote and directed Bhavnao Ko Samjho, a comedy film featuring 51 stand-up comedians, and he and his wife hold a Guinness World Record for casting 47 stand-up comedians in a single film, which is an extremely Sunil Pal way to enter the record books.

Twenty years on the paparazzi still know the face. That kind of fame settles rather than fades. Everything below is our own footage.

More on Sunil Pal: en.wikipedia.org