India’s Got Latent 2 winner: If you love watching India’s Got Latent 2, I am sure you must have enjoyed Siddhanth Shetty’s bang-on impersonation of Ravi Kishan. The talented lad received an amazing reaction from Samay Raina, Deepak Kalal, and other panelists. Did you know he was nervous before doing Kishan’s impression on the stage?

In an exclusive conversation with Filmibeat Assistant Editor Abhishek Ranjit over a phone call, Siddhanth Shetty got candid about how he came up with the idea to mimic Ravi Kishan. He proudly said that Samay Raina’s reaction made the moment funnier.

Here are excerpts from the interview

1. Your Ravi Kishan impersonation on India’s Got Latent 2 went viral and got a great response. How did you come up with the idea, and what made you confident it would work on stage?

I found out two days before my performance that I was going to be performing on India’s Got Latent. At that time, Ravi Kishan was really trending through memes on Instagram and YouTube. So, I thought this was the right place at the right time.

I decided to do the Ravi Kishan character because characters really work, and people love them. Since he was trending at that time, I thought, why not Ravi Kishan?

2. What was going through your mind when you saw the audience and the judges reacting so strongly to your performance?

I was very nervous when I first found out that I was performing next because I knew how wild Deepak Kalal and Samay Raina could be, and I had no idea what was going to come up.

But as soon as I entered the stage and started dancing in Ravi Kishan’s style, the response from the audience was wild. They were hooting so loudly, and it gave me the power and confidence to go out there and own the stage.

3. Deepak Kalal’s standing ovation was one of the memorable moments of the episode. What did that reaction mean to you personally?

Deepak Kalal was absolutely stunned, and it wasn’t just him, the entire panel was really surprised by my act. His standing ovation was one thing, but after my performance, he even got up from the panel, came over and kissed me.

I think that was the only validation I needed to know that my act was good. I honestly didn’t expect Deepak Kalal to enjoy it this much. I thought he would roast me, but I ended up roasting him, and I loved that.

4. You eventually emerged as the winner of the competition. At what point did you start believing, “I could actually win this”?

Before the episode starts, the contestants are called and asked to score themselves. I confidently gave myself a 10. I was like, today I will definitely set the stage on fire.

I wasn’t just confident about giving myself a 10; I wanted to perform as if the audience would also give me a 10. It was all or nothing, either a 10 or nothing.

I was confident when I gave myself the score. Then, when I entered the stage and started performing, the audience and the panel were so surprised and happy with my performance that I realised it could actually be a 10.

After that, when Samay started scoring us one by one, with Balraj, Ravi Gupta and Aggu giving me 10s, I was like, come on, man! Yes, we have won.

5. Impersonation requires a lot of observation, voice, mannerisms, expressions and timing. How do you prepare when you decide to mimic someone like Ravi Kishan?

I had two days to prepare the act. I got the call on Friday, and the performance was on Sunday, so I had exactly two days to prepare.

During those two days, I was completely engrossed in watching Ravi Kishan Ji’s podcasts, interviews, comedy shows and all his appearances. I studied his body language and voice, and I was absorbing his entire personality. It took me those two days to completely get into the character.

I also observed him while watching his memes and paid attention to how he expressed himself and did his thing.

So, it was a mixture of all of that, watching him on screen, studying his personality and observing his mannerisms for two days, that helped me bring the character inside me.

6. After the response to India’s Got Latent, what’s next for Siddhanth Shetty? Are you looking at comedy, acting, content creation, or something completely different? Will you ever be up for a show like Bigg Boss?

After this, I would love to experiment with comedy shows. I believe I’m a very good actor, so I also want to get into acting and do web series, movies and more.

But content creation is something I would never stop because I love the process of creating content online on Instagram and YouTube. Content creation will always be there, but I’m also very keen to get into acting, comedy shows and explore something new.

As for Bigg Boss, only time will tell whether I participate in it.

7. Samay Raina is known for his sharp, unpredictable sense of humour and for creating a space where performers can really experiment. What was your experience performing in front of Samay, and is there anything he said or did during the show that stayed with you?

Samay Raina is known for his incredible wit and comic timing. I mean, who doesn’t know Samay Raina and how great he is?

When I started performing and saw Samay laughing his heart out, I was like, wow, man! If Samay Raina is laughing at my jokes and my act, then I think I’ve aced it.

Throughout the episode, he was stunned. He kept looking at me as if he was thinking, “Bro, what is happening? How is this possible?”

I wanted to meet Samay after the act, but unfortunately, I couldn’t because he had to urgently go somewhere else. So, I didn’t get the opportunity to meet him personally.

However, throughout the act, he was stunned and amazed by my performance. I would definitely love to meet Samay and do something with him in the future because I’m a really big fan of his.

The entire experience was a lot of fun, especially seeing his reactions and being able to perform in front of him.