Tannishtha Chatterjee slams Comedy Nights Bachao Taaza for ‘racist’ comments

WATCH VIDEO: Tannishtha Chatterjee Hits Out At Comedy Nights Bachao Taaza On Facebook For ‘Racist’ Comments

Later, the actress took to her Facebook account to post the reason for her abrupt exit from the show. In her post, she wrote that though she was aware that the show’s concept is that of a roast, she was unprepared for what she terms ‘bullying’ about her skin tone. The 35-year-old actress added that it was upsetting for her that the performers could only find her skin tone worth their roasting.

Here is an excerpt from what she wrote on her FB account, “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? Where does all our pride as a nation go away when it comes to the acceptance that most of us have a darker skin tone? This is so deep rooted and linked to our perceptions of caste, class and skin tone. Upper caste =Fair skin =touchable. Lower caste=dark skin=untouchable. Yes I have pronounced it.”

You can read rest of her post here| Tannishtha Chatterjee slams Comedy Nights Bachao for “racist” content on FB

A couple of hours later, director Hansal Mehta posted a reaction to Tannishtha’s post.

Well, it is just not Tannishtha who felt offended with the “racist” content of Comedy Nights Bachao. Akshay Kumar, who was earlier seen on Comedy Nights Bachao, promoting Airlift, refused to promote Rustom because of its concept. In fact, even Hrithik Roshan refused to promote Mohenjo Daro and Jacqueline Fernandez declined to feature on the show for the same reason during the promotions of Dishoom. And they aren’t the only one, the show has been in bad books for a lot of celebrities.

Also read | Bharti Singh gives a sneak-peak of Comedy Nights Bachao Taaza’s funny script, see pic

The idea of a revamp came from the refusal of stars to appear on the show. However, after Tannishtha’s experience, it seems the show is yet to learn from its past mistakes.

You can read Tannishtha’s post on the show here.

“Color

Something has shocked me out of my wits yesterday. I was invited as a guest to a popular comedy show called comedy night bachao to promote my latest release Parched with my director Leena yadav and my co-actor Radhika Apte. I was told that the flavor of the show is COMEDY and the purpose is to roast, humor, and offend. My perception of roast was formed by all the SNLs I watched over the years, and the commonly held perception that a roast is a celebratory humour at someone’s expense . It is a mock counter to a toast.
I was actually looking forward to be roasted.

And then this show began. And this was an entirely novel understanding of roast that equates itself with bullying. And to my utmost horror, I soon realized that the only quality they found worth roasting about in me was my skin tone. It began with “ aap ko jamun bahut pasand hoga zaroor… kitna jamun khaya aapne bachpan se?” And went on in that direction… 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 can’t call it humor), and blatantly racist content. Though I was feeling suffocated, I decided to give it another chance, and sat through another equally offensive segment. Nothing changed. I could not sit there anymore. I had to leave.

When I told the organisers what I felt, they said , “But we told you it is a roast!”I explained to them the common perception of roast and how it is different from bully. That there is no humor value in a joke about someones physical attributes especially one that stems from deep prejudices. I don’t think they got it.

Some friends also told me don’t take it so seriously, it’s just a comedy. I think that’s what the show also thinks. It’s all fun and games! Except there is nothing funny about this. Precisely because -In a country where we still sell fair n lovely/handsome and show adverts, where people don’t get jobs because of their complexion, where every matrimonial advert demands a fair bride or groom and the color bias is so strong, in a society which has a deep-seated problem with dark skin, which also has deep roots in our caste system , in a country where dark skin is marginalized, making fun of it is not roast. Even considering that dark skin is a joke comes from that very deep prejudice. And I tried to explain why this is not personal and it is a larger issue about what our mindset is. And why cracking jokes about deep biases in our society is irresponsible. And that it is not a question about apologizing to me, but propagating this idea and continuing with this mindset in the name of comedy is what is hugely problematic, specially because it is a popular show on a nationalized Chanel.

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? Where does all our pride as a nation go away when it comes to the acceptance that most of us have a darker skin tone? Once I was asked “ Your surname is Chatterjee? Oh you are Brahmin.. What is your mothers surname? Maitra! Oh…. She is Brahmin too…” And then indirectly he hinted how is my skin tone still dark… ? This is so deep rooted and linked to our perceptions of caste, class and skin tone. Upper caste =Fair skin =touchable. Lower caste=dark skin=untouchable. Yes I have pronounced it. Probably most of us will not admit to our hatred for the dark skin also comes from our caste bias.

I made a film called Parched. Why I am saying “I made” is because all of us who are a part of this film feel that this was not just a film for us. That its MY FILM. We wanted to express a lot of things about gender, body, skin , sexuality , caste etc through our stories. It has been a revelation that the journey just begins here as we realise through our promotional process that we are constantly subjected to exactly those issues from which this film was engendered. The list is long long and the biases are deep deep….The privilege that allows these are what we had hoped to challenge.