Not A Joke: Bigg Boss Contestant Admits To Groping Women As Audience Cheers

By: News Desk |
July 29, 2019 5:29 pm

The latest episode of Bigg Boss Tamil 3, hosted by popular actor Kamal Haasan, has landed in a controversy after a contestant and actor Saravanan “casually” admitted of groping women in buses, during his college.

What happened in the show
The third season of the reality show had started airing on June 23. Earlier this week a contestant Meera Mithun had accused director Cheran of ‘manhandling’ her during a task, according to The Hindu, While discussing the issue on the show, anchor Kamal Haasan says such “inadvertent shoves” happen all the time. He further adds it with an example that while on a crowded bus everyone is in a hurry and no one molests on purpose. While saying this Haasan also added that there are some who get on buses specifically to grope people.
To this, actor Saravan, who has acted in over 25 films, raised his hand saying, “When I was in college I’ve done it too”. His response met with cheers and applause from the audience in the studio.
Kamal Haasan’s spokesperson, however, clarified that the actor was being sarcastic, says an India today report.

Twitter Uproar
The actor’s remarks drew criticisms on social media. Singer Chinmayi Sripaada who has headed the #MeToo movement in the Tamil industry took to twitter to express the displeasure. “A Tamil channel aired a man proudly proclaiming he used the Public Bus Transport system to molest/grope women – to cheers from the audience. And this is a joke. To the audience. To the women clapping. To the molester. Damn,” she wrote on Twitter.

A Tamil channel aired a man proudly proclaiming he used the Public Bus Transport system to molest/grope women – to cheers from the audience.

And this is a joke. To the audience. To the women clapping. To the molester.

Damn. https://t.co/kaL7PMDw4u

— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 27, 2019

“Didn’t expect him to say he molested, that too to a loud cheer from the audience! Totally aghast!” another Twitter user wrote.

Not surprised with the shit that came out of Saravanan’s mouth, but Haasan defending it with a cheeky line is so disappointing. He could’ve politely schooled him but no has to make a joke https://t.co/CGo0bu6W7n

— Haricharan Pudipeddi (@pudiharicharan) July 28, 2019

sometimes we fail to understand what is a joke and what is not. I hope Kamal Hasan realised what wrong he was doing there.

This kinda jokes encouraged others to do the same depicting it as something cool. absurd.

— Manan (@itsveere) July 28, 2019

Not acceptable but sadly that’s current state of society. Can’t help to get this changed immediately as it was grown over years.
We just reached a stage where it irks 20-30% which was only felt by victims before. Still hv long way for ppl to react correct. Wish to hv this asap/1

— Kothai (@KothaiKirthi) July 27, 2019