All India Bakchod Co-founder Gursimran Khamba will no longer be the show runner for an original series on Amazon.com INC’s Video streaming service, a top executive said on Wednesday. The comic writer was accused of sexual misconduct by an anonymous woman on social media last month. She accused him of ‘emotional blackmail’ and of trying to overpower her on several occasions. Gurshimran Khamba has acknowledged the misbehavior but categorically denied any ‘violation of consent’.
The #Metoo Campaign has brought spotlight on the dark side of AIB. It all started with comedian Utsav Chakraborty, who has been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women using social media about their horrific experiences. This had a ripple effect on AIB; Tanmay Bhatt who was aware of his sexual misconduct didn’t take any action and had to leave with disgrace.
At the time of incident, Khamba was the creator of ‘Gormint’ a political satire that AIB was producing for Amazon Prime video. The woman said that she had decided to speak about the incident as it traumatized her life. She feels sick of the hypocrisy when he is “lauded as a smart, level headed woke” man. She further said, “It makes me sick to see people celebrate him when they don’t know the context and costs.”
Amazon has remained silent on his association with AIB but has suspended its activities after the #Metoo campaign. “Khamba is not attached to the project at this point,” Vijay Subramaniam, director and head of content at Amazon Prime Video India, told Reuters in an interview. This is the first major decision taken by the online video streaming company against the AIB since the charges surfaced on social media. Earlier, the Hotstar had dropped the AIB show after allegations surfaced against the comedians. Star India’s online medium has also withdrawn the future shows of AIB. In a statement Hotstar said that the popular ‘On Air With AIB’ stood cancelled after looking at the shocking claims.
The group became famous after their controversial stint at Mumbai where Bollywood applauded the comedians on several occasions about their hyper liberal outlook. AIB roast faced the public backlash and the Bollywood superstars had to make a public apology. This notorious group has been involved in their vicious anti-Modi and anti-India campaign. There is an old saying, ‘Practice what you preach’. Unfortunately, it seems that AIB does not give any heed to this saying. They engage in demonizing the members of the government in center, even posting insulting pictures of the same as they did with CM Yogi and PM Modi.
Amazon launched ‘Prime Video’ in India in late 2016 and previously said that India is its fastest growing prime video market in the world. Amazon India needs to take the cognizance of the matter and should ban other members of AIB like its rival Hotstar.