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Post by James on Feb 4, 2015 7:32:29 GMT
Has anyone seen it? I wonder if it can be found online now that it's been removed from Youtube. ETA: Found it on daily motion. It really is racy! NSFW. Bollywood 'comedy show' taken off YouTube after rowThe producers of an Indian comedy "roast show" have taken it off YouTube after an intense row over its contents on social media. Stand-up comedy group AIB recently invited Bollywood actors Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh to its "comedy roast" filmed in front of thousands of people. Right-wing groups and Twitter users objected to the show's "abusive jokes". The programme was based on US-style roast shows where celebrities are abused and insulted. Most celebrities take such insults in good humour and get a chance to get back at their "roasters" at the end of show. Popular filmmaker Karan Johar hosted the show along with AIB members to question Kapoor and Singh. In the video, the Bollywood actors can be seen laughing at the jokes and seem to have taken the "insults" in their stride. Among the audiences were top Bollywood actresses Deepika Padukone, Sonakshi Sinha and Alia Bhat. 'Abusive language'The three-part series got more than eight million views within days after it was uploaded on YouTube. But the comedy group has now removed the series after several right-wing groups and Twitter users protested against its "below the belt" jokes and "abusive language". The Maharashtra state government has said that it would look into the content of the show and take necessary action if needed, The Indian Express reports. The AIB, which is popular for making funny videos about celebrities and current affairs, is also facing threats from Hindu nationalist parties. Regional party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has asked the actors to apologise over the show. The party added that it would not allow the films of these actors to be released in the state if they failed to apologise. [..]
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Post by James on Feb 4, 2015 7:36:18 GMT
AIB Roast: Criminal Complaint Filed Against Karan, Arjun and Ranveer for being 'Abusive'; Twitterati Supports Controversial ShowThe world raved when AIB roasted budding stars Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh amid 4,000 odd people. While the wisecracks were taken on by them in the right spirit, some have been left irked. According to the complaint filed by Akhilesh Tiwari, President, Brahman Ekta Seva Sanstha, Mumbai, ace filmmaker Karan Johar along with the two youth icons have used inappropriate language which has apparently blemished Indian culture and women. "I have handed over a letter to Sakinaka police demanding a criminal complaint be lodged against these so-called youth icons Karan Johar, Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. The show, which can be seen on YouTube and other websites, was extremely abusive and it is not only ruining the clean image of the Indian culture & women, but is also misleading today's youth," PTI quoted Tiwari as saying. To add to this, Maharashtra's Minister for Cultural Affairs Vinod Tawde told NDTV that they would lodge an FIR against the makers as they have performed sans license. "Such vulgarity is a crime and based on facts which will emerge, the government will file a case against them," he said. [..]
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Post by dancelover on Feb 4, 2015 19:34:36 GMT
In USA, comedians and other actors (almost all actors!) have been doing "roasts" for decades. Originally, they were private to the Comedian Culture, and then to the Acting Culture, so outsiders wouldn't know how vulgar they got.
Then, they started televising them! I watched several. The insults seemed harsh, but there were definite limits to the vulgarity. I presume that the TV versions were censored, even self-censored.
Yesterday, on Koimoi (posted Jan 29; still there), I read some of the "jokes." Not much censorship there! They were about who was making love with whom, who had rejected whom, who was jealous that a rejected lover had found another lover, and so on, in vulgar terms even more than with vulgar language!
It seems to me, lovemaking and sexplay are SO powerful, that talking about doing them is a form of really doing them. Talking about them, where non-participants can hear, is less than a step away from inviting them to join in.
Therefore, this group might have done better to keep this so-intimate roast private among themselves (and their four thousand closest friends !). Allowing so many strangers, more than they can possibly love, to listen in, asks for trouble.
Perhaps they ought to have watched the *televised* versions of American roasts, before deciding what to televise and what to keep private.
Does a General Audience really need to know, that actors are *so* compatible with each other, that any one of them might reasonably make love with any other of them? I recall an old adage, about making sausage.
Howard "Dancelover" Wilkins
PS: the Acting Community really is different from non-acting communities, with different customs, standards, and needs.
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Post by James on Feb 4, 2015 21:30:39 GMT
I don't know, I actually found that this was very similar to American-style roasts, which is the real attraction, IMO. Or it even reminded me of the 'dirty' show at Just For Laughs in Montreal. It's very unusual to hear folk from India speak that way (publicly), and it was very amusing, even if there were several jokes that I didn't care for (a couple against Deepika were harsh, and the sole female comedian had some un-funny jokes targeting her, too). All of these people now taking offence at the jokes weren't there, weren't the target of the jokes, and should probably just grow up, IMO. And also stop trying to control others...
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Post by James on Feb 4, 2015 21:42:02 GMT
All India Bakchod released the following statement via their facebook page: “I may not agree with you, but I will defend to death my right to get offended. How dare you? Baahar mil.” – Desi Voltaire Dear everyone, Let’s just all take a deep breath. They’re just jokes. Unfunny, crass or whatever you want to call them, they’re still just jokes. The AIB Knockout video has been taken down. While we’d love to claim that it’s because so many people watched it that it broke YouTube, the truth’s a little sadder. First things first; no one person or force forced us to take this video down. This is not something that’s happened because of a 3 am phonecall or a morcha at our front door or a gunman on a grassy knoll. Under the circumstances, this is us being pragmatic. Allow us to explain. People who’ve been following our work will know that we’ve always tried to experiment with content be it on Youtube or a live comedy show, with the sole intent of making people laugh and/or think. AIB Knockout was another such attempt to try something new and bring the roast format to a country where celebrities aren’t often known to laugh at themselves. To our pleasant surprise, we managed to bring together consenting adults who were willing to be made fun of by other consenting adults in a crowd full of (wait for it) consenting adults. And if we’re honest, it was a phenomenally entertaining evening. Were the jokes repetitive? Crass? It didn’t matter because they happened in the spirit of irony and good humour. It was just liberating to be able to say those things, things that people have thought in one form or another privately for years. A lot of the laughter that night came from that spirit (there’s your answer, people who wondered why everyone was laughing at terrible jokes). The video came with a clear disclaimer with several age and content warnings. No one was forced to watch it, we didn’t buy airtime on every single TV channel on Earth to broadcast it. YouTube videos do not magically auto-play in front of you. And yet the videos got over 8 million views. Far more importantly, on the video page, the people who liked them outnumbered the people who disliked them by ten times to one. Yes, ten times. The format was the same as any international roast i.e. insult comedy, delivered in the form of one-liners designed to be as rude as possible. It is performed with the understanding that none of the material is to be taken seriously—none of the performers actually mean the “offensive” things they say to each other on the night. We clarify this simply to provide context. With the Knockout, in our own juvenile, idiotic way, we wanted to push the envelope of comedy in this country. But then the envelope pushed back. Things got to a point where people who have supported us, people who work hard to make what we do come to life, were put in a position where things could get deeply unpleasant for them. And that’s a problem. We can live with abuse, hate, anger, fury, rage, ignorance, bigotry and perhaps even bullying. But we don’t want anybody to get hurt because of us. And we do mean anybody. We hope it’s clear by now that we never write with the aim of hurting people. That’s not our goal and we daresay that no comedian ever does that. We don’t go to work and say, “Hmm, let’s offend XYZ people from XYZ community today.” If we really wanted to piss off people and hurt them, we’d be selling credit cards over the phone. Our job is to raid the newspapers, pop culture and life for observations and analogies and it’s okay if you think we’re juvenile or unfunny. We respect arguments that are critical, and as for the arguments we don’t, we respect your right to make them without impediment. It is a courtesy we wish worked both ways. Over the last few days, we’ve found ourselves subject to more scrutiny, judgment and opinion than we’re worth. This Knockout shouldn’t matter. In a secure culture it wouldn’t matter. We’re lucky to have support pouring in from all quarters. First up, from our fans, just the greatest people in the world, who have nothing but good cheer and encouragement and positive thoughts. We were pleasantly surprised that people in power who we have made fun of in the past, including people from both the so-called right wing and left-wing, went out of their way to convey support to us. It was fantastic to know that they stand for free speech as much as us. Friends in the media have told us to stay our course, pledging their support for our right to say anything, no matter how ridiculous. Thank you to anyone who has stated in the last few days that we have the right to say what we want, not as comedians but more importantly as citizens of this country. There’s a larger cultural conversation going on here, where we’re at the very edges of what it’s okay to say. And it’s a conversation we need to have now because the world we live in is entirely too complicated to be run by silences. We still stand by our belief in the right to absolute freedom of expression for us and for anyone who has anything to say about anything at all. We hope to be part of an environment that supports that sort of expression without fear of persecution, intimidation and most importantly, annoyance. As always, in our own AIB way we’ll continue to strive towards creating that very environment. In the meantime, we’d like to say thank you to our fans and everyone else who is standing by us. You guys make the struggle worth it. To everyone railing against us and against the stars that were present, to everyone who’s decided we’re destroying the fabric of our culture, to everyone who’s called us seditious pornographers while plotting the downfall of Indian Values And Civilization As We Know It, we would like to reiterate that we are just a bunch of comedians who work, and have always worked, without any malicious intent whatsoever. We encourage any and all conversation on the subject of freedom of expression, for our own silly selves, and for people better, smarter and more courageous than us. For hundreds and thousands of artists, commentators and any and all citizens that do not have the privilege of social platforms and reach that we do. We are also cooperating with the authorities and hope to resume normal service soon. We’d like some sort of cheerful resolution to this so we can focus on more important national issues, like the upcoming Cricket World Cup. P.S. Best of luck Virat Kohli. Sorry for the jokes. We heart emoticon you. P.P.S. It’s a good thing nobody’s downloaded the file and put it on a torrent website or anything.
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Post by dancelover on Feb 4, 2015 23:12:35 GMT
They try to control others, out of fear that they cannot control themselves! Dancelover I don't know, I actually found that this was very similar to American-style roasts, which is the real attraction, IMO. Or it even reminded me of the 'dirty' show at Just For Laughs in Montreal. It's very unusual to hear folk from India speak that way (publicly), and it was very amusing, even if there were several jokes that I didn't care for (a couple against Deepika were harsh, and the sole female comedian had some un-funny jokes targeting her, too). All of these people now taking offence at the jokes weren't there, weren't the target of the jokes, and should probably just grow up, IMO. And also stop trying to control others...
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Post by dariya on Feb 5, 2015 8:17:48 GMT
I agree that the culture police could find much better things to patrol.
Personally I didn't like what I saw of the "roast", specifically because of how... American it seemed. It felt unnatural to hear the participants speaking in that way (except for maybe the AIB guys since I have seen their videos). But then I guess most twenty-something BW stars really HAVE grown up on American humor - so even if it seems wannabe-ish to me, they're probably just being natural? Meh idk. Anyway, point is I found it crass but nothing to get my knickers in a bunch about. At the end of the day individual taste shouldn't matter where freedom of speech is concerned.
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Post by rose on Feb 7, 2015 11:06:13 GMT
I didn't watch it but I've seen the gif pop up on tumblr. It was so tame compared to what happens at American roasts.
Seriously, this is likely what they're like in real life. They might be stars but they're not different from the layman.
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Post by dancelover on Feb 7, 2015 18:48:00 GMT
On further consideration, These Jokers are showing and telling the Truth about their feelings, and their ways of thinking. Such things should not be lied about. Although they might be kept private for "a time," sooner or later the data ought to be made available to interested parties - and it will be, like it or not!
The First Reveal will be shocking, but the Second will be less so. And this is a time when "Young Bollywood" is older (almost all over 25), more mature, and more experienced than ever, and so better equipped to deal with "blowback." As we are seeing.
Also it occurs to me that those vulgar jokes are repeating, and expanding upon, what the Gossip Stories are saying, whether or not it is true. The actors are showing that they can take those jokes, and rise above the gossip. This is Good.
So Roast On, you Indian Comedians!
Howard "Dancelover" Wilkins
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drk
Dancing in the chorus
Posts: 10
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Post by drk on Feb 8, 2015 14:16:08 GMT
Most importantly, can we compile a list of any juicy gossip revealed!?
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Post by nehamathurfpj on Feb 18, 2015 7:23:38 GMT
Team AIB apologises to Christian community
Members of the All India Bakchod Comedy Company met Bp. Agnelo Gracias, Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay and offered an unconditional apology to the entire Christian community for any offence that may have been caused to its members as a result of the AIB Knockout.
Christian organisations here were irked by standup comedy group All India Bakchod (AIB) for hurting their religious sentiments through some statements and demanded action against those associated with the programme.
The Association of Concerned Catholics (AoCC) had also submitted a memorandum to Maharashtra Education and Culture Minister Vinod Tawde.
AoCC secretary Judith Monteiro said they have protested against some statements in the show pertaining to Jesus and the Church.
And now, Tanmay Bhat, Gursimran Khamba, Ashish Shakya, Rohan Joshi at AIB have apologised to them.
According to a post by Archdiocese of Bombay on Facebook, the members of the All India Bakchod Comedy Company met Bp. Agnelo Gracias and tendered an unconditional apology. Bp. Gracias, on behalf of the Archdiocese of Bombay, accepted the unconditional apology and in the spirit of understanding and reconciliation stated that the Archdiocese accepts the AIB apology and considers this matter closed.
The content of the apology letter was also shared along with the post on Monday.
The letter reads: “We, Tanmay Bhat, Gursimran Khamba, Ashish Shakya, Rohan Joshi at AIB hereby offer an unconditional apology to the entire Christian community for any offence that may have been caused to its members as a result of the AIB Knockout.
“While performing our acts, no matter the subject, we never intend to hurt anyone, though as an unfortunate consequence of the nature of our profession we sometimes do. We are sorry.”
They also urged that they have the “utmost respect for all religions and community and have never been against any community, nor do we bear any ill will of any kind towards any community.”
“We also believe and support with complete certainty the notion that every community has the right to live with dignity, honour and freedom from any form of persecution. We would also like to reiterate that the jokes at the AIB Knockout were not intended as a form of persecution or malice towards the Christian community or any other community, for that is not who we are, or what we stand for.”
The show had created a nationwide furore after a three-part edited version of the ‘Roast’, titled AIB Knockout was posted on online video-sharing platform YouTube Jan 28.
AIB Knockout was a December 2014 charity comic event where Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar and a panel of comedians “grilled” actors Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor on their personal and professional lives.
But the clips were later pulled down. - See more at: www.freepressjournal.in/team-aib-apologises-to-christian-community/#sthash.l1zauBFu.dpuf
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Post by James on Feb 19, 2015 22:34:40 GMT
Shame they have to go through this sort of stupid damage control. At least it seems the threats of criminal proceedings seem to have ceased.
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