#MeToo: After Tanmay Bhat, Amazon Ousts Gursimran Khamba
Kanan Gill has however been retained for ‘Comicstaan 2’.
After allegations of complicity and misconduct surfaced against All India Bakchod founders Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, the comedy collective announced that Bhat would be stepping away from the business with immediate effect, and that Gursimran Khamba, who was put on a leave of absence by AIB, would no longer headline the upcoming social satire, Gormint.
On 14 November, an Amazon India spokesperson revealed to NDTV Gadgets 360 that Bhat would not be a part of Season 2 of Comicstaan. “We are no longer working with Tanmay Bhat. But we will continue working with Kanan Gill, ” said the spokesperson on the mentors of the comedy hunt show.
“Khamba is not attached to the project at this point," Vijay Subramaniam, director and head of content at Amazon Prime Video India, told Reuters in an interview.
Tanmay Bhat is said to have been cognisant of the allegations of sexual misconduct against comedian Utsav Chakraborty. In a former statement, the comedy collective admitted that Tanmay Bhat was aware of the accusations, and that the victim had confided in him about the harassment that she suffered at the hands of Chakraborty.
Khamba on the other hand was accused of misconduct and “emotional blackmail” in October by a woman on social media who chose to remain anonymous.
The online streaming platform Hotstar cancelled their production of season 3 of On Air with AIB on 8 October.
Other comedians associated with the reality show include the likes of Sapan Verma, Kenny Sebastian, and Biswa Kalyan Rath.
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