Biswa Kalyan Rath is an Indian stand-up comedian, writer and YouTuber. He came into prominence through the YouTube comedy series, Pretentious Movie Reviews[3] with fellow comedian Kanan Gill. He played a supporting role in the 2016 Netflix sex comedy film Brahman Naman. He created the 2017 Amazon Prime Video's series Laakhon Mein Ek. On 9 December 2020, Rath married actress Sulagna Panigrahi.[4]

Biswa Kalyan Rath
Born (1989-12-27) 27 December 1989 (age 34)[1]
Alma materIIT Kharagpur
Occupations
Years active2014–present
Spouse
(m. 2020)
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2015–present
Subscribers680 thousand[2]
Total views45 million[2]
100,000 subscribers

Last updated: 19 July 2023

Career

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After Biswa graduated in Biotechnology from IIT Kharagpur in 2012,[5][6][7] he worked at the mobile security startup, BitzerMobile. It was during this time that he met Kanan Gill at an open mic event in Bengaluru in 2013.[8] He quit his job at Oracle in 2014 to become a full-time comedian.[9]

Biswa and Kanan came up with the idea of the Pretentious Movie Reviews, a series of videos which soon went viral on YouTube. In this series, they review critically panned Bollywood films.[10] They chose Bollywood movies because they are so embedded in the Indian pop culture.[11][12] In 2014, he performed his first live show along with Kanan Gill in Gurgaon.[13]

He started doing stand-up comedy in 2015 and went on his first solo national tour, Biswa In your Face in September 2015, doing shows in Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.[14] In 2015, he hosted the Comedy Hunt along AIB and other comedians and also did a tour named Biswa Mast Aadmi.[15] He has also created a web series called "Laakhon Mein Ek" which released on Amazon Prime Video in October 2017.[16] and appeared on HDFC Life's Behind the Journey video series[17]

In December 2020, Biswa launched an exclusive Masterclass[18] for the aspiring stand up comedians with FrontRow.

Filmography

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Film

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Year Film Role Notes
2016 Brahman Naman Ilash Debut film (Cameo)
Year Platform Name Notes
2014 YouTube Pretentious Movie Reviews Himself
2017 Amazon Video Biswa Mast Aadmi[19][20] Stand Up Special
Laakhon Mein Ek: Season 1[21] Created & Written by Biswa Kalyan Rath,
Co-written by Vaspar Dandiwala & Karan Agarwal
Going Viral Pvt. Ltd. Episode #StartUp
Youtube Son of Abish S2E8 with Kanan Gill
Soundcloud AIB Video Podcast With Sumukhi Suresh
2018 Amazon Video Improv All Stars: Game Night Himself
Comicstaan: Season 1 Judge
2019 Laakhon Mein Ek: Season 2[22] Created & Written by Biswa Kalyan Rath
Co-written by Abhishek Sengupta & Hussain Haidry
Comicstaan: Season 2 Judge
Sushi[23] Stand Up Special
2020 Afsos Played a fictionalised version of himself (Guest Role)
FrontRow Learn Comedy on FrontRow with Biswa Played himself, teaching comedy to aspiring comedians
2021 Netflix Alma Matters: Inside the IIT Dream Himself
2023 Amazon Video Mood Kharaab[24] Stand Up Special
2023 Amazon Mini TV Hum Do Teen Chaar Brajesh Gupta

References

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  1. ^ "Kanan and Biswa: Most Random Ever". 16 November 2015.
  2. ^ a b "About Biswa Kalyan Rath". YouTube.
  3. ^ "Pretentious Movie Reviews". Retrieved 5 August 2017 – via YouTube.
  4. ^ "Biswa Kalyan Rath gets married to Sulagna Panigrahi". 19 December 2020.
  5. ^ "During my IIT days, I realised I like joking more than engineering: Biswa Kalyan Rath". The Times of India. 27 March 2017. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  6. ^ India, IIT KGP Alumni Foundation. "Unique Talents of KGP'ians: Biswa Kalyan Rath, from KGP to TV - Newsroom". IIT KGP Alumni Foundation India. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Biswa Kalyan Rath • EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney)". earthackney.co.uk. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  8. ^ Apoorva Sripathi (9 March 2015). "Reels of fun". The Hindu. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  9. ^ Rhea Yadav (5 September 2014). "In Conversation With Biswa Kalyan Rath: Of Pretentiousness and Gamechanging". University Express. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  10. ^ ET Bureau (9 May 2014). "Reviewer duo Kanan Gill and Biswa Kalyan Rath throw a few punches at bad Bollywood movies". The Economic Times. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  11. ^ "During my IIT days, I realised I like joking more than engineering: Biswa Kalyan Rath - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  12. ^ Somya Lakhani (9 May 2014). "Boys of Bollywood". The Indian Express. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  13. ^ Aanchal Tuli (22 August 2014). "Kanan Gill and Biswa Kalyan Rath's first live show in Gurgoan". The Times of India. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  14. ^ Manali Shah (23 October 2015). "Most serious ever: Biswa on life before Pretentious Movie Reviews". The Hindustan Times. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  15. ^ Hena Mehta (4 October 2015). "Comedians stand up and get counted". The Hindu. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  16. ^ "Laakhon Mein Ek Trailer" – via Youtube.
  17. ^ "Behind the Journey with Biswa" – via Youtube.
  18. ^ Learn Comedy on FrontRow with Biswa, retrieved 15 June 2021
  19. ^ "2017: The year India's stand-up comics took a stroll even as they had a chance to run wild". scroll.in.
  20. ^ "Biswa Kalyan Rath on his new show Laakhon Mein Ek, and moving on from Pretentious Movie Reviews". firstpost.com.
  21. ^ "Laakhon Mein Ek: Comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath's Amazon Prime series asks some tough questions". India Today.
  22. ^ Farzeen, Sana (12 April 2019). "Laakhon Mein Ek Season 2 actor Shweta Tripathi: Biswa Kalyan Rath is quite a serious guy". The Indian Express. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  23. ^ "Biswa Kalyan Rath's Amazon Special Sushi Packs Enough of the Wasabi Punch". Film Companion. 30 October 2019. Archived from the original on 27 October 2019. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  24. ^ "Mood Kharaab review: Biswa Kalyan Rath's best standup special yet". cnbctv18.com. 5 May 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
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