It might appear that the #MeToo in Bollywood is already underway, after Tanushree Dutta’s allegations against Nana Patekar. The fire is about to engulf the stand-up comedy scene as well, with Utsav Chakraborty being accused of harassing women through unsolicited dick pics and repeated requests for nudes and topless pictures.
Twitter personality, Mahima Kukreja, was the first one to call Chakraborty out on his behaviour, in reply to an article where the comedian expressed second-hand embarrassment about 1,300 Indian men leching at women on a cruise. Kukreja switched on her DMs and requested women to reach out to her, if they had been harassed by Chakraborty.
Her inbox was soon flooded with horrific anecdotes of Chakraborty’s predatory behaviour.
Hey Utsav. How many girls have you harassed you vile man. These messages for a young girl I know. pic.twitter.com/fXGWpbqfqf
— Mahima Kukreja (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
Hey Utsav. You give your number and slide into DMs of literal children. Like 17 year old girls? You’re a creep of another level. pic.twitter.com/sjdJ5uf8dg
— Mahima Kukreja (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
Hey Utsav you asshole. Do you like DMing girls you don’t even know to send nudes? You vile man pic.twitter.com/rAklrKjcke
— Mahima Kukreja (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
Never ending. This is exhausting. https://t.co/gbnh4smwzl
— Mahima Kukreja (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
HOW MANY MORE Utsav I feel sick https://t.co/NLLotUI5uk
— Mahima Kukreja (@AGirlOfHerWords) October 4, 2018
It should be noted that a majority of the girls/women in question (including a 17-year-old minor) are strangers, which points the needle towards pathological, predatory behaviour.
Stand-up comedians Aditi Mittal and Varun Grover have publicly condemned the allegations against Chakraborty. Grover called this a ‘failing’ on the part of the industry, that is still relatively new. While Mittal asked him what he was doing about his behaviour that made women feel unsafe around him.
It’s a serious failure of the entire comedy community if things have come to this stage. We had a new industry that could have been easily taught the meaning of equality & respect. We blew that chance. Ashamed.
—(@varungrover) October 4, 2018
What’s up with this Utsav? Your behaviour has been consistently misogynist for a while and you keep pretending to be woke like your boyfriends at AIB who keep you employed as well. Women don’t feel safe around you. What are you doing about this?
— Aditi (hot takes 4 koolkidz) (@awryaditi) October 4, 2018
Another comic Rohan Desai apologised for supporting/defending Chakraborty on earlier occasions. Desai claims to have confronted his ‘friend’ about it, but is said to have been convinced that it was merely a misunderstanding. Desai apologised for believing Chakraborty and not calling him out sooner.
Just wanna apologize for supporting/defending @Wootsaw in the past. I had confronted him about an incident and he convinced me that it was a misunderstanding and i believed him. I dismissed other stories are hearsays instead of being more alert.
— Rohan Desai (@MautKaPashinda) October 4, 2018
Understandably, a number of tweets were addressed to All India Bakchod (AIB) – the company that has employed Chakraborty for a number of their sketches. But they held their individuals silences and released a statement saying that they condemned the allegations and would fully co-operate with any investigation into the matter.
Statement pic.twitter.com/eLpthXifwf
— All India Bakchod (@AllIndiaBakchod) October 4, 2018
Fellow comics and journalists called out more male comics for not speaking out against Chakraborty’s actions. Kukreja has tweeted that the person who ‘runs things at AIB’ was aware of Chakraborty’s behaviour, and still chose to work with him.
The accounts presented on Kukreja’s Twitter feed should be more than a clear reason to initiate an investigation in the matter. Chakraborty has responded with the following ‘statement’ –
Statement 1/n pic.twitter.com/sIouz4UsaR
— Utsav (@Wootsaw) October 4, 2018
Of course, people couldn’t miss the fact that it didn’t have the word ‘sorry’ in it.
Fun sobering up game: Drink when you see the word sorry. https://t.co/La5FD1Vkk0
— Sumedh Natu (@sumedhnatu) October 4, 2018
