The show’s co-host Krushna Abhishek subtly said that there was nothing apologetic about the content.
Actress Tannishtha Chatterjee’s Facebook post slamming the show ‘Comedy Nights Bachao Taaza’ and its regressive and blatantly racist ways of finding humor in her dark skin tone has gone viral and the ‘Colors’ channel issued an open apology.
“I was actually looking forward to be roasted… 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,” Tannishtha wrote on Wednesday.
“Except there is nothing funny about this, Precisely because – In a country where we still sell fair n lovely/handsome and show adverts, 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 is a joke comes from that very deep prejudice,” the ‘Parched’ actress added.
As a reply to the post, Colors wrote that it has always addressed pertinent social issues and was sad that she had a traumatic experience on the show.
The show’s co-host Krushna Abhishek also made an apology for hurting her feelings, but he subtly said that there was nothing apologetic about the content.
“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 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. Secondly, we gave more importance to Radhika Apte who is a bigger star. That must have also been a problem for Thannishtha,” Krushna told to media.
“When a show comes, 90 per cent people praise the show, but then 10 per cent say they didn’t like it. So maybe she didn’t like the format. When Varun Dhawan came for ‘Dilwale’, Varun himself came up to me and said that he is very excited and looking forward to the roast. Even Shah Rukh Khan chose to come to our show for ‘Fan’. I don’t know what hurt Tannishtha, because I wasn’t performing then. But I apologies if it has hurt her, though it wasn’t a deliberate attempt,” he added.
The 35-year-old actress was on the show to promote her film ‘Parched’ and was accompanied on the show by her team members, actress Radhika Apte and director Leena Yadav on Tuesday.