Comedy troupe All India Bakchod’s (AIB) Tanmay Bhat has received strong criticism, particularly from public figures and politicians in Maharashtra, after allegedly insulting stalwarts of the nation Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar. Tanmay Bhat had used social media forums Snapchat and Instagram to post parody videos, using the ‘Face-swap’ feature to impersonate Mangeshkar and Tendulkar.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BF2G_qumHkB/?taken-by=tanmaybhat
The videos were released last week as part of a series of jabs at the two personalities, on his Instagram and Facebook page. Prodded by political parties in Maharashtra, the Mumbai police may even file an FIR and ask for Google and YouTube’s help to ban the videos.
The videos, which went viral on Sunday, received negative remarks from several quarters. Maharashtra’s BJP and Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) both filed a complaint against Bhat, even as Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani said that Bhat’s freedom of speech should be revoked for insulting the ‘mother of music’.
However, many have questioned the political outrage against Tanmay Bhat, when large parts of the country is undergoing drought, and dealing with other issues:
What should be the concern of Maharashtra govt? Snapchat or drought? #TanmayRoasted https://t.co/ijeyQZuMkS
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 30, 2016
If we were half as offended by what the BJP says about women, students or minorities as we are about #TanmayBhat, India would be better.
— lindsay pereira (@lindsaypereira) May 30, 2016
Mumbai: NCP Women’s wing protests against #TanmayBhat pic.twitter.com/DmuUCdOOqO
— ANI (@ANI_news) May 30, 2016
Meanwhile, Bhat remains unfazed. In a humorous tweet, he claimed that Snapchat should pay him for all the attention the app has garnered over the last few days.
Please pay me @Snapchat
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) May 30, 2016
With inputs from NDTV and ANI.
