Comedian Tanmay Bhat of the AIB comedy collective fame has again found himself in controversy after his decade-old tweets resurfaced on the internet. Bhat was recently dropped from the 811 ad campaign for Kotak Mahindra Bank. The comedian's advertisement alongside Samay Raina was flagged by a Twitter user who claimed that Bhat had previously joked about Lord Ganesha in his tweets.
Soon after, several netizens tagged the bank on Twitter and urged them to pull the campaign as they found the comedian's old jokes offensive.
In response, Kotak Bank apologised for associating with Bhat and withdrew its ad campaign. Here's what their tweet read:
"We, at Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. do not support or endorse the views of actors made in their personal capacity that harm or offend any individual or group. We have withdrawn the campaign."
Tagging the bank, a Twitter user shared some screenshots of Bhat's old tweets, accusing him of being "Hinduphobic."
Here, take a look:
Reacting to the news, fellow comedian Kunal Kamra took to Twitter to show his support for Bhatt and called it a "sad day for comedy world over".
He wrote in his tweet, "I can’t believe no comedians are siding with victim Tanmay Bhatt he has faced so many atrocities in life & still counting. Sad day for comedy world over… Shame on Indian comedy scene."
This isn't the first time Bhat has been the centre of controversy. The comedian had drawn criticism for making fun of legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and veteran singer Lata Mangeshkar.
Previously, FIRs were registered against the now-defunct AIB for their controversial roasts of stars Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh.
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