Gursimran Khamba, co-founder of comedy collective All India Bakchod (AIB), has been fired as showrunner for Amazon Prime original Gormint. The show that was initially supposed to have Irrfan Khan playing the lead character, ran into troubled production when the actor had to pull out citing serious health concerns. The show had barely recovered from that shock when the #MeToo movement tipped the first domino in India’s stand-up comedy scene with Utsav Chakraborty, resulting in AIB (Utsav’s former employers) being implicated into his actions.
“Khamba is not attached to the project at this point. We are focused on putting the project back together. It’s an incredibly witty and well-written show, and we remain super excited about being able to bring it to life,” Vijay Subramaniam, head of content for Amazon Prime, was quoted by Reuters.
Tanmay Bhat was called out for knowing about Utsav Chakraborty’s serial predatory behaviour, and still choosing to work with him. Gursimran Khamba, in a different set of allegations, was accused by an ex-girlfriend of ’emotional blackmail’ and also making attempts to force himself on her. Hence, it was no surprise that Only Much Louder or OML (AIB’s talent & event management firm), was recently called out for sheltering a culture of systemic abuse of the women at the workplace.
Pending investigation, AIB’s human resources put out a statement where they mentioned Bhat would be ‘stepping away until further notice’ and Khamba would be placed on a ‘temporary leave of absence until there was more clarity on the matter’. Gursimran Khamba has denied certain specifics of the allegations, saying that it was a ‘toxic relationship’, but admitted to having regrets about the way he behaved with the woman.
#TimesUp really seems to be walking the talk in India, after Vikas Bahl was replaced by Kabir Khan as director of Super 30. Fox has sacked both Sajid Khan and Nana Patekar from Housefull 4 after allegations rose against them, while the allegations against Mukesh Chhabra might result in the Hindi remake of The Fault In Our Stars (starring Sushant Singh Rajput) getting shelved altogether.
