MUMBAI, March 24: Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, once again in trouble for his brand of humour, could well be controversy’s favourite child. On Monday, the comic was at the centre of a massive political storm in Maharashtra for his comments seen as an attempt to defame Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The 36-year-old pops up in the headlines every now and then, each time for something he has said in his shows or on social media. The issues have ranged from several airlines banning him from flying for heckling a TV news anchor to facing contempt of court for his comments on the judiciary.
Today, too, news cycles were dominated by Kamra, who has reportedly left the state after the row that saw Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking him for an apology, opposition leader Uddhav Thackeray coming to his defence and the venue of his show being vandalised by members of the Shiv Sena (Shinde). Kamra has 2.5 million followers on X, one million followers on Instagram and 2.32 million on his YouTube channel. As the row escalated, he posted a photograph on Sunday night of himself with a copy of the Constitution of India and captioned it, “The only way forward…”
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He grew up in Mumbai and worked at ad company Corcoise Films as a production assistant for six years often balancing his day job with his stand-up shows that were initially focused on regular issues faced by common people. In 2017, he grabbed attention with his first stand-up comedy on YouTube where he poked fun at the government for invoking the Army and patriotism when criticised for its policies. Titled “Patriotism & the Government”, the video has 18 million views.
The same year, he started a YouTube show titled “Shut Up Ya Kunal” where he would interview personalities from across the spectrum. The guest list was eclectic, including BJP leader Tejaswi Surya, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Congress’ Sachin Pilot as well as lyricist Javed Akhtar and journalist Ravish Kumar.
The questions were no holds barred with the interviews inserted with memes, photographs and funny videos to draw laughter. The show was a hit but not without its share of controversies.
In 2020, he heckled TV anchor Arnab Goswami aboard a Mumbai-Lucknow IndiGo flight. The video became viral and led IndiGo to suspend Kamra from flying with it for six months. Air India and SpiceJet put him on a no-fly list until further notice.
Kamra found himself at the centre of another scandal that year when he mocked then Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde on social media after Goswami was given an interim bail in a 2018 abetment to suicide case.
The post attracted a contempt case against Kamra.
An undeterred Kamra made another remark against the Supreme Court, which led to a petition being filed against the comedian in the already pending contempt of court case.
In the same year, Kamra kicked up another controversy by sharing a morphed video of a child singing for Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Germany. The child sang “Hey Janmabhoomi Bharat” but it was replaced with the famous “Peepli Live” song “Mehengayi daayan khaaye jaat hai”. The child’s NRI father called out Kamra for dragging his child into his politics. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) took cognisance of the incident and asked Twitter (now X) and Delhi Police to take down the tweet.
Kamra later deleted his tweet. (PTI)
