In a major setback to notorious comedy group AIB, online streaming platform Hotstar cancels production of On Air with AIB Season 3, with immediate effect. In its statement Hotstar said, “We are deeply concerned by these developments, which run contrary to our values as responsible platform, and we will not stand by anything that compromises the respect or safety of women.”
— Hotstar (@hotstartweets) October 8, 2018
The season 3 of the show had gone on air on 28th September.
Hotstar’s bold decision has set a very good example which Amazon Prime should also follow. The panel judges in the Amazon Prime show ‘comicstaan’ includes Tanmay Bhat, one of the founders and CEO of AIB.
Other online streaming platform should also follow the same and they must never allow AIB to use their platform to spread negativity in the society. There should be no place for organisation’s like AIB which breeds perverts in a civilised society.
Youtube should also act responsibly and remove all the contents related to AIB in order to teach these perverts a good lesson.
Hotstar’s move is another big victory of people’s movement on social media and it is also one of the first major success of ongoing #metoo movement of India.
Since the news of AIB team members perpetrated and abetted sexual predatory act has emerged, people were demanding Hotstar to remove all the content related to AIB, else they would uninstall Hotstar.
Hey 21st century fox (@21CF), @FoxStarIndia, your subsidiary @hotstartweets features content from @AllIndiaBakchod, whose founders & employees have recently been accused of rape/ molestation by many women. High time hotstar take down their content. Please acknowledge.
— THE SKIN DOCTOR (@theskindoctor13) October 8, 2018
@FoxStarIndia @hotstartweets I'm unsubscribing all Fox and HotStar channels immediately.
AIB perverts like Rohan Joshi @mojorojo are still in charge in that doghouse.— Captain Nemo (@PSP10482181) October 8, 2018
Remove all content related to @AllIndiaBakchod or will forces you to do the same #UnsubscribeAIB #MeToo #MeeTooIndia
— Free Voice ?️ (@Vivek_VJ87) October 8, 2018
Please remove all contents of AIB else we the subscribers will have to stop watching Hotstar. Can not be paying to company which promotes molesters and offenders of the worst kind.
— नित्यानंद तिवारी (@NAnandTiwari) October 8, 2018
At last, people’s movement won and Hotstar complied with their request.
Earlier, when Mahima Kukreja exposed the dark side of AIB team member Utsav Chakraborty then also people ran #UnsubscribeAIB. It turned out Mahima was not the only victim as many other girls came out to expose the habitual predatory behavior of Utsav. Twitter user, Mahima Kukreja claimed that she had informed AIB about Utsav’s behaviour and made them aware of all the accusations against him, but they did nothing about it and continued to employ him. AIB in its statement has accepted that Tanmay Bhatt was well aware of Utsav’s sexual predatory behavior and he even confronted Utsav in his personal capacity- which led to Utsav calling the victim, leading to further harassment. The statement further reads that accuser did not wanted to pursue any legal action,Tanmay also did not informed anyone else in the organisation about Utsav’s sexual predatory behavior and ‘the matter ended there.’
A statement ; We're sorry pic.twitter.com/Lpa9HKyORb
— All India Bakchod (@AllIndiaBakchod) October 5, 2018
Tanmay Bhat also accepted the same and also apologized for it.
After confronting Utsav, he said he sent the picture by accident, later called the victim crying, apologizing, hence harassing her further. I should've ended ties then, and I didn't, and it is my fault. I'm truly sorry. I should've acted stronger.
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) October 5, 2018
Recently, a woman, who wished to remain anonymous, made serious allegations of inappropriate behavior against AIB’s co-founder, Gursimran Khamba.
Gursimran Khamba from @AllIndiaBakchod. The survivor wishes to stay anonymous. #MeToo #TimesUp #BelieveHer pic.twitter.com/B9PTYJT8LE
— hk {on a hiatus} (@PedestrianPoet) October 8, 2018
On Monday evening, AIB issued a statement on the allegations doing the rounds against its co-founder and CEO, Tanmay Bhatt. The statement reads that Tanmay Bhatt is stepping away from AIB, which means he will not be involved with the day to day functioning of the group. The statement further adds that it has taken cognizance of the allegations against Gursimran Khamba too and has decided to send him on a temporary leave.
The recent development can be considered as the beginning of the end of AIB. From here onwards the future of the comedy group looks bleak. This entire episode is a good lesson for all those double faced comedians who have made their career by cracking vulgar, crass, misogynist and adult jokes and at the same time they also pretended to be moral guardians of the society. Such hypocrite people should always keep in mind what Abraham Lincoln once said: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Good always triumphs over evil. The debacle of AIB is a good example of this.
