The Great Indian Laughter Challenge is one of the very successful reality shows on Indian television. It is a competition of stand up comedians. Produced by Endemol, the third series on STAR One ended on September 15, 2007.
Overview
It has run through two 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 also made host Perizad Kolah very popular and 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 forst 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.
Recently the first woman to participate was Aarti Kandpal.
Results
Great Indian Laughter Challenge I Results
1. Sunil Pal
2. Ahsaan Qureshi
3. Raju Shrivastav
4. Navin Prabhakar
5. Bhagwant Mann
6. Parag Kansara
Great Indian Laughter Challenge II Results
1. Rauf Lala (Pakistan)
2. Irfan Malik & (parteners)(Pakistan)
3. Rajeev Nigam (Mumbai)
4. Partap Singh Faujdar(UP)
5. Khyali(Chandigarh)
6. Raj Kumar & Rancho (Monkey Puppet)
Great Indian Laughter Challenge III Results
1. Kapil Sharma (Amritsar)
2. Chandan Prabhakar (Amritsar)
3. Sudesh Lehri (Amritsar)
4. Pervez Siddqui (Pakistan)
5. Rajiv Thakur (Amritsar)
6. Kuldeep Dube (Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh)
Amanullah Khan was taken out of the competition out of respect because he is already a proven comedian in Pakistan.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Indian_Laughter_Challenge