Tanmay Bhat reacts to Kunal Kamra controversy, says he’s getting calls about his wellbeing: ‘Tanmay, are you okay?’ | Bollywood News
Comedian Kunal Kamra’s latest special, Naya Bharat, has been mired in controversy for the past few days. The Habitat in Mumbai’s Khar area, the venue where he performed the set, was vandalised, and soon afterwards, the owners announced that they were shutting it down for the time being. While this might be a stressful time for comedians in the country, Tanmay Bhat, along with Rohan Joshi, Aditya Kulshresth and Kaustubh Agarwal, got together on Tanmay’s YouTube channel and made some lighthearted comments on the situation.
Tanmay called it an “interesting week for comedy” and recalled that The Habitat had a wall with photographs of famous comedians. “I kept telling Balraj that you have not put my picture up yet. He had left a spot vacant for me,” he said, and Rohan immediately joked, “Now there’s too much space.”
Tanmay shared that soon after the Kunal Kamra controversy happened, he started getting messages about his wellbeing. Tanmay landed in trouble along with other members of the now-defunct comedy collective AIB after the infamous roast hosted them in 2015. “Any comedian gets into trouble, I get a message, ‘Tanmay, are you okay’?” he shared. Aditya joked that he was shocked that Tanmay didn’t land in any trouble for India’s Got Latent, as he too was one of the guests on Samay Raina’s show. Kaustubh joked, “If we have a comedy party, Tanmay will be like Advani.”
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Tanmay appeared as a guest on India’s Got Latent, the variety comedy show that comedian Samay Raina hosted on YouTube. The show attracted major backlash after another guest, entrepreneur Ranveer Allahbadia, made a joke that didn’t go down to well with a certain section of the audience. No further episodes have been released, and both Ranveer and Samay have issued apoligies amid police investigations.
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Kunal Kamra’s comedy special was uploaded earlier this week, attracting backlash for jokes targeted at politician Eknath Shinde and others. Soon afterwards, supporters of politician Eknath Shinde vandalised the venue. Amid the backlash, Kunal refused to apologise for his jokes and shared on Instagram, “I will not apologise. What I said is exactly what Mr Ajit Pawar (1st Deputy CM) said about Mr Eknath Shinde (2nd Deputy CM) I don’t fear this mob and I will not be hiding under my bed, waiting for this to die down.” He also criticised the vandalism at The Habitat and wrote, “Attacking a venue for a comedian’s words is as senseless as overturning a lorry carrying tomatoes, because you didn’t like the butter chicken you were served.”
