During this period of lockdown, several old videos of stand-up comedians have been surfacing on the internet. In most of the videos, the comedians were seen defaming cultural and historical icons of India. The videos went viral in no time and created a wave of vexation amongst people. However, when the comedians saw the rage of MNS and Shivsena demanding arrest of comedian Agrima Joshua for allegedly insulting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, they started posted apology videos tagging Maharashtra CM, HM, Aaditya Thackeray, Raj Thackeray and Nitin Raut.
Agrima Joshua was the first one to post an apology video and soon after, many comedians started taking to their social media platforms to issue their apologies. Agrima Joshua stated the names of Shiv Sena, MNS and NCP in her video specifying her regret towards the act. See the full video here:
Also, a Youtuber Shubham Mishra who started making rape threats to Agrima Joshua has been arrested.
AIB comedian Rohan Joshi deactivated his twitter account after his phone number and address got leaked. He has been hurled with death threats and abuses since his old tweets with obnoxious comments against West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, the Thackeray family and other prominent personalities started coming to the surface. The comedian took to his Instagram account and requested to leave his family alone, “Going offline for a few days. Number and address have been leaked, so the last few days have been a circus of abuse, threat, 2 am phone calls and anxious spirals. I'm sorry if I offended anyone's sentiments with my words and I apologise without any qualifications and reservations for any words I have spoken that have hurt someone's religious sentiments. Please leave my family alone.”
Stand-up comedian Aadar Malik, who is also the nephew of Anu Malik shared a video from his Twitter handle where he apologised for offending anybody’s sentiments with any knowledge. He added that the video is an eight-year-old-video and he has evolved as a comedian since then. Watch the full video here:
Sahil Shah also apologised in his video saying that he was unknown to the fact that him making a joke on Shivaji Maharaj can offend and hurt anyone’s sentiment. He also assured that the old video has been deleted and tagged Maharashtra CM and others in his tweet. See here:
The last few days have surely created turbulence in the life of these stand-up comedians. Many comedians including Azim Bantawalla, Sanjay Rajoura, Neeti Palta and others have either deactivated their Twitter accounts or have protected their tweets.
Watch this space for the latest updates.