Do we like CarryMinati?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Real charity work and no sign of culture-war grift, set against a roast style with a record of mocking queer people and a fresh court order.
Ajey Nagar grew up in Faridabad in a highly educated family, with a doctor mum and a lawyer dad. He started making videos at eight and, after a few false starts on other channels, landed on the name CarryMinati, riffing on a Bobby Deol persona. His mum wanted him in medicine; he picked arts and asked for a PC instead.
The big break came in 2019 with a Hindi rap response to PewDiePie, and TIME put him on its Next Generation Leaders list the same year at just 20. By March 2024 his main channel sat at about 41.6 million subscribers, making him one of India's most-followed YouTube personalities. Roasts and gaming streams are the engine.
A Delhi lawyer lodged a 2021 complaint alleging he made sexually coloured remarks about women on his channel and asking for an FIR. The report carried no response from Nagar or the police, and we couldn't confirm what came of it. Separately, he has publicly denied being an online bully, saying he takes permission before roasting someone and never makes it intense.
The latest stoush is with Karan Johar. In February 2026 a Mumbai judge granted an ad-interim injunction after Johar's suit alleged vulgar, defamatory statements in a roast video, ordering the videos taken down. Nagar's side said he'd already deleted them and that Johar rushed to court; it's an interim order, not a final ruling, and we found nothing later.
On the broader harm check, nothing turned up on trans rights, vaccines, climate or politics, and no run of culture-war company either. That's a thin record rather than a clean bill, since the searches were limited. The problem here is roast-style cruelty, not conspiracy theories or campaigning against anyone's rights.
The good stuff is real. In 2020 he ran a live stream that raised Rs 10,31,137 for Assam and Bihar flood relief and added Rs 1 lakh of his own. Fans love the gaming streams and the relatable everyman act.