Some shows protect their sponsors. India’s Got Latent does the opposite – and somehow, brands keep lining up for it anyway.

Back in Season 1, the show’s biggest backers were Vastrado, Spinny and POPclub, with skincare brand Deconstruct also riding the wave through a creator tie-up. That season ended in chaos – Ranveer Allahbadia’s controversial remark triggered legal complaints, pulled episodes, and a very public reckoning over what creator-led content could get away with. For brands, it became a cautionary tale about losing control the moment a sponsor’s logo enters Samay Raina’s room. Advertisers were left wondering if edgy creator IP was even worth the exposure anymore.

So naturally, Season 2 brought in a fresh batch of sponsors anyway.

When the show returned on June 20, AI+ Nova, Avvatar and Flipkart Minutes walked in as official partners – and walked straight into the same chaos. Raina, visibly using a rival phone throughout the episode, kept insisting AI+ Nova was the smartphone everyone needed, undercutting the pitch himself by joking his current one “only has an I.” Avvatar got rougher treatment – its tagline got mixed up mid-plug, and when Alia Bhatt accidentally knocked the brand’s drink off the table, Raina didn’t smooth it over. He called her out on the spot, turning the mishap into the night’s running joke instead of quietly cutting away from it.

No brand gets the polished, protected version of itself here. They get mocked, misquoted and occasionally knocked off a table – on purpose, in front of millions of viewers.

And yet they keep coming back, season after season, sponsor after sponsor. Because on Latent, getting roasted isn’t a risk brands are tolerating. It’s the entire pitch. A scripted ad disappears into the scroll; a brand that survives Samay Raina’s jokes becomes the thing the internet won’t stop talking about.