Ranveer Allahbadia’s remark on parents’sex sparks outrage

New Delhi : Influencer Ranveer Allahbadia has apologised for his controversial remark that led to many calling for a ban on his podcast and politicians, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and opposition leaders of the state, criticising him for exploiting freedom of speech.

Allahbadia -- who has over 600,000 followers on X, 4.5 million on Instagram and 10.5 million subscribers on his YouTube channel -- became one of the trending topics on social media after his comment on Samay Raina’s YouTube reality show “India’s Got Latent” gained traction. On the comedy reality series, popular among today’s youth for its edgy bordering on offensive content, Allahbadia asked a question to a contestant on parents and sex, which has been panned by many and led to a BJP functionary lodging a police complaint here against the makers, judges and participants of the show.

In an apology video on X on Monday, Allahbadia admitted that his comment was not only inappropriate, but also not funny.

“Comedy is not my forte. Just here to say sorry,” the YouTuber, popularly known as BeerBiceps, said in the video.

“Many of you asked if this is how I wish to use my platform. Obviously, this is not how I wish to use my platform. I am not going to give any context, 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 social media influencer, who has been criticised for setting a bad example for the youth who are his primary audience, said he doesn’t want to be the kind of person who takes responsibility lightly.