India’s downward spiral in free-speech indices has been nothing short of remarkable; in a recent study conducted by The Future of Free Expression, an independent body of panelists, it came at 24 out of a pool of 33 countries in total.
The Kunal Kamra fiasco, which began with the comedian taking a satirical jibe at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, has developed into The Habitat Comedy Club in Mumbai being vandalised by members of the Shiv Sena, and Mumbai Police issuing a summon for the comedian. While the price of a joke is levied against the comedian, Bengaluru-based artistes opine on the issue.
I feel the man is made of steel; it is pretty ballsy to say stuff like that. Kunal Kamra’s issue was blown out of proportion. We live in a country where we are supposed to be able to speak freely about issues. But right now, comedy is something that’s been very terrorised. I feel like comedians need to speak on issues like this and if the other parties can’t take it, it’s on them. About The Habitat, I feel that a place cannot take responsibility for what a creator has to say. At the end of the day, if my opinion is controversial, come at me or have a word with me. But going and vandalising a place just because they didn’t agree with the statements of a comedian is a very absurd thing to do.
This is a very challenging time for comedians; we are sort of easy targets. When you sit down to write comedy you have to think about who you are going to offend, what might create issues, or what might rub people the wrong way. So we have to filter our thoughts a thousand times before we put it out there as content. I mean we are just regular people just trying to put our thoughts in a funny way.
We should have freedom of speech in a democratic country; it should not be stopped. We have to speak for ourselves. And I always think comedy, let it be comedy. It should not get into any controversies. It has to remain as entertainment. Let comedy be comedy, let political views be political views. You can’t help it when in some forms of comedy, you have to bring politics. But I only suggest that we should not take names. Similarly, no one has a right to vandalise a venue or hurt a person.
I always feel that there is a very thin line between comedy and reality; we should never cross that particular thin line. People who generally cross that particular thin line, they always, obviously, get in trouble. As an artiste, you should abstain from the terminology of politics. This looked like someone made a political pitch and then that political pitch was actually made to be said through that particular artiste.
Will never happen in any other country where the police is efficient and effective. Only in India, and some other countries, where law and order are in shambles, things like this are possible. Look at the irony. Here, the victim of physical harm over something verbal has to apologise to the perpetrators to avoid being subjected to further physical harm.
The FIR can never be justified. These people don’t even realise that the video was pre-recorded; they showed up and broke a venue where events like poetry, spoken word, and various art forms are practised – the venue has nothing to do with what an artiste performs on stage, right? The material is the artiste’s material. The guy who led the mob has political ambitions, they want to get noticed, which is why they carry out such acts. That is the intention of it rather than being offended by a joke. Also, Kamra never took a name – they just assumed it. I think people should do stand-up comedy on the streets because how will someone break something that’s already broken?
I don’t think he mentioned anybody’s name. But even then, it got to a place where they vandalised the venue, for what was recorded six months ago. No protest should take the form of violence. Kamra has been a satirist for a good part of the last decade. Ironically, he’s holding the Constitution of India in the video, talking about freedom of speech and whatever he says, eventually ends up in a mess. It takes a lot of guts to go up on stage and say something political.
The jokes were funny and meant for a certain audience. No jokes, anywhere, told by anyone, warrant violence. That was never the purpose of an entertainer. It’s unfortunate we (comics and comedy venues) have to live in fear. Aren’t we the devil’s advocate for society?
Read more: https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2025/Mar/26/how-to-crack-a-joke-in-india-2