The Great Indian Laughter Challenge

The Great Indian Laughter Challenge is one of the very successful reality shows on Indian television. It is a competition of stand up comedians that is presented on STAR One. Produced by Endemol India, the fourth series of the show launched on June 6, 2008.

Overview

It has run through three seasons where stand-up comedians and performers from different places came together and showed their comedy skills to judges, live audience and people. The show was judged by Shekhar Suman, an eminent TV personality and Navjot Singh Sidhu who a famous former cricketer and cricket commentator from India, known for his humorous "Sidhuisms." The show's initial episodes were hosted by Parizad Kolah and later she was replaced by Shonali Nagrani.

In the first season, Sunil Pal was the winner whereas Ahsaan Qureshi was a close second. In the second season contestants from Pakistan were also present and the winner Rauf Lala was also from Pakistan. The third season was won by Kapil Sharma from Amritsar. The judges for the grand finale, included Umer Sharif, the legendary Pakistani performer.

The first two seasons were followed by another show The Great Indian Laughter Champions which included top performers of the previous shows. Here also the judges were Sidhu and Shekar including some celebrity guests as well.

The fourth season features judges Navjot Singh Sidhu and popular actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who has replaced Shekhar Suman. Recently the first woman to participate was Aarti Kandpal. The fourth season's finalists were Rasbihari, Bharti, Suresh Albela and a duo from Pakistan. The winner for the fourth season after a tough laughter war was Suresh Albela and the Pakistani duo were the first runner up.

Great Indian Laughter Challenge I Results

* Sunil Pal
* Ahsaan Qureshi
* Raju Srivastava
* Navin Parabhakar
* Bhagvant Maan
* Parag Kansara

Great Indian Laughter Challenge II Results

*Rauf Lala (Pakistan)
* Rajeev Nigam (Mumbai)
* Pratap Fauzdar (Agra) & Khyali (Chandigarh) (TIE)
* Irfan Malik & Ali Hasan (partners) (Pakistan)
* Dr. Tushar Shah (Mumbai)
* Raj Kumar & Rancho (Monkey Puppet)

Great Indian Laughter Challenge III Results

* Kapil Sharma (Amritsar)
* Chandan Prabhakar (Amritsar)
* Sudesh Lehri (Amritsar)
* Pervez Siddqui (Pakistan)
* Rajiv Thakur (Amritsar)
* Kuldeep Dube (Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh)

Great Indian Laughter Challenge IV Results

* Sikandar Sanam and Wali Sheikh
* Suresh Albela
* Bharti singh
* Rasbihari Gaur