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Hardik Pandya Faces Backlash For ‘Koffee With Karan’ Statements

Hardik Pandya, the first cricketer to come on Karan Johar’s talk show Koffee With Karan, is doing damage control after getting “carried away by the nature of the show.” He was invited with KL Rahul from the Indian cricket team.

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On the show both of them spoke about how popular Hardik was among women, and when Karan Johar asked why he wouldn’t make an effort to find out a woman’s name at a club, Hardik said, “I’m little from the black side so I need to observe and watch how they (women) move.”

He then bragged that he hooks up with many women, and tell his parents about it too, “Main karke aaya hai aaj (I did it today).” KL Rahul didn’t speak much and was complicit. Karan Johar remained smug and giggled through the show.

He later tweeted, “With these young forces I had a blast.”

Hardik faced backlash for comments after the show aired last weekend. The Board of Control for Cricket immediately issued show-cause notices to both the cricketers. They were given 24-hours to explain, after which Hardik issued a statement saying he “got carried away by the nature of the show” and did not mean to disrespect or hurt anyone’s sentiments. He said, “There was no malice or any sort of ill-intent on my part to offend anyone or portray any section of the society in bad light.”

This morning, the Chief of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) of the BCCI, Vinod Rai, said he was not convinced with the explanation and recommended a two-ODI ban on both Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul for their comments on the show. Another CoA member Diana Edulji referred the matter to the BCCI’s legal cell.

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“Diana has sought legal opinion whether the duo can be banned. So, obviously a decision will be taken once she gives her nod. As far as I am concerned, the comments were crass, in bad taste and unacceptable,” said Vinod Rai.

Both KL Rahul and Karan Johar are yet to respond to this.

The last we heard from Karan was after #MeToo. In an interview he said that as a responsible filmmaker his production house Dharma Productions, will not feature item songs in their future projects. He said, “The moment you put a woman in the centre and have a thousand men looking at her with lust, it sets the wrong example. As a filmmaker I have made those mistakes and I will never do it again.”

 

Image courtesy: India Today