New Delhi: Rahil, who is from Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, came to the ninth episode of Samay Raina’s India’s Got Latent as ‘Odi Ji’. He is a stand-up comedian and mimicry artist, who has earlier dressed up as Emraan Hashmi and performed his mimicry on The Great Indian Kapil Sharma Show.
In the episode, Rahil impersonated Prime Minister Narendra Modi, opening his act with the signature salutations — “mitron and friends…” His mimicry even led Raina to give an impromptu video call to comedian Kunal Kamra, who is known to weave the government’s criticism in his comedy. To the panel’s surprise, Rahil roasted Kamra on the “falling rupee” and even took a dig at him saying, “Did you pick up that joke from WhatsApp?”
He received a perfect 10 from the panel, which included Raina, MC Stan, Tanmay Bhat, Arpit Bala and Madhur Virli. It matched the score he had predicted before his performance, and won the episode.
Not his first gig
In The Great Indian Kapil Sharma Show, which streamed in September last year, Rahil dressed up as Emraan Hashmi and mimicked the actor in the 12th episode of Season 3. Titled Yaaron Ka Adda, the episode featured Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty as guests.
Hashmi is not the only celebrity Rahil can imitate. The mimicry artist has a list of 22 celebrities whose mannerisms and voices he can reproduce. The list includes Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, Tiger Shroff, veteran actors Amrish Puri, Mithun Chakraborty and Nana Patekar, as well as BJP MP and actor Ravi Kishan.
He shared the list on his Instagram account after the episode premiered, writing, “Hey brands..darne ki baat Ni,..ye sab characters ke liye b approach kr sakte ho (Hey brands, don’t worry, you can approach me for all these characters too),” he wrote
Previously, Rahil had shared reels on his Instagram profile in which he mimicked actors such as Pankaj Tripathi and Akshaye Khanna one after another, delivering the same dialogue in different voices.
Over the past three years, Rahil has also been creating comedy content for his Instagram page, where he reviews films in the voices of their lead actors. In one video, he reviews Salman Khan’s Sikandar by mimicking the actor, making it seem as though Salman himself is reviewing his film.
He has also given a comic twist to everyday vlogging. In one video, Rahil impersonates Amrish Puri and imagines what would happen if the veteran actor entered a metro. Speaking in Puri’s voice, Rahil recreates a scene inspired by Karan Arjun, in which he travels on the metro in search of the mother and her sons, Karan and Arjun. He jokes about her having a ₹30 metro ticket and asks, “Where are these Karan and Arjun?”
Rahil’s mimicry is not limited to videos on Instagram. In April, he impersonated Sunny Deol in front of the actor himself and delivered the iconic dialogue from Deol’s film Damini: “Dhai kilo ka haath.”
(Edited by Aakriti Handa)