Mumbai: Bengali belle Tannishtha Chatterjee, who has earned rave reviews for her role in the critically acclaimed Leela Yadav film Parched', took offence when comedians Krushna Abhishek and Bharti Singh roasted her for being dark-skinned. The actress refused to sit through the entire show amid such regressive, and blatantly racist content.'
The actress, who sat through the first two equally racist segments of the show, couldn't handle it when the comedians continued bullying' her for her skin colour. Chatterjee, then took to Facebook to express her shock and disbelief.
She wrote, "...And to my utmost horror, I soon realized that the only quality they found worth roasting about in me was my skin tone... the only thing they could roast about a dark-skinned actress was of course her dark skin. They could identify me only with that. I could not believe I was sitting in a nationally televised comedy show in 2016 in Mumbai amid such regressive (I cant call it humor), and blatantly racist content..."
The film Parched', that highlights the plight of women in rural Gujarat and how the four characters break free from the shackles of this unforgiving society, focuses on the widespread issue of deep-rooted caste bias that is still prevalent in some parts of this fast-growing nation.
Tannishtha, considering the show centred around humour, was prepared to be made fun of but not at the expense of her appearance. On Facebook, she clarified that her anger is not personal." It has nothing to do with the show at a personal level. But it leads to a larger debate. Why does skin tone still lend itself to jokes? How is it funny to call someone dark? I don't get it. In an India of 2016 I still have to be apologetic about my skin tone? What is this white-skin hangover? ", asked the visibly upset actress.
Here's her complete post:
Mumbai: After Parched' actress, Tannishtha Chatterjee strongly criticised Comedy Nights Bachao' for making fun of her dark skin, the actress receives written apology from the TV channel.
After a heated Facebook post on how the Parched' actress faced racism based on her skin color went viral on social media, the Spokesperson of COLORS TV, the channel that airs the comedy show, has apologised to the actress and has ensured her that the channel focuses only on creating meaningful content and addresses pertinent social issues like skin colour bias.
In her reply, the actress not only accepted the channel's apology but also clarified that the post was not just about her.
The Facebook post, where she talked in details about how horrific the whole experience was, has been shared 972 times and film personalities like Sona Mohapatra and Zoya Akhtar have extended their support to this wounded star.
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Zoya Akhtar stood by the actress's side.
Singer Sona Mohapatra responded to this distasteful incident.
Mumbai: Actor and comedian Krushna Abhishek, who was accused of repeatedly joking about Tannishtha Chatterjee's dark skin on his show Comedy Nights Bachao', called her Facebook post a publicity stunt'.
The Parched' star, on her Facebook account, has written a detailed post accusing comedians Krushna Abhishek and Bharti Singh of hurling racist jokes at her. After her story went viral on social media, Colors TV, the channel that airs the show, has apologised to the star and ensured her that the episode will be free of any degrading jokes on her.
While speaking to dna, the comedian called it a publicity stunt.
He said, " Tannishtha is going overboard. She is doing this for publicity. We always meet the actors before they come on the show. I had asked her if she had seen the show before and if she was familiar with our (roast) concept. She said she hadn't seen the show. She hadn't watched even AIB Roast. If she didn't know what it was, she shouldn't have come on the show."
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Krushna speculated that Radhika Apte, co-star of Tannishtha in the movie Parched' and a bigger star', who was given more attention, must have irked the actress. He added, "...we gave more importance to Radhika Apte who is a bigger star. That must have also been a problem for Tannishtha."
The angry television star clarified that he had neither called her 'kaali kalooti' nor had he provoked her to walk off. In fact, as per Krushna's statement, it was his idea to send them off as they had finished doing the film integration with the show'.
"I didn't say that and I don't know who said that. In any case, it is a roast format aur hamne wahi masti ki jo hamesha karte hai. In fact, we have toned it down from what it was earlier. Initially, she was enjoying, but after a while she told us she doesn't like this kind of mass humour... As for her walking away from the show, that's not true...after three acts, we realised that she was not enjoying the show at all. We thought she will spoil the show, so it was mine and director Nikul Desai's decision that we will send them because we had finished doing the film integration with the show," he concluded saying.
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