Abijit Ganguly, a Delhi-based comedian, accused The Kapil Sharma Show of plagiarism on Monday.
The comedian levelled his allegations in a Facebook post, which soon went viral with close to 2,000 likes in five hours.
Ganguly wrote that Kiku Sharda, an actor on the show, performed a joke from one of the former’s stand-up performances.
The Joke of Contention
The joke in question was one which Ganguly used in a stand-up act, the video of which he shared on 9 April. The joke is about brothers and bowlers and features at 3:08 in the video.
The joke is used in the following episode of The Kapil Sharma Show, incidentally also the 100th of the show, at 52:15.
It’s Plagiarism to the Core: Abijit Ganguly to The Quint
The Quint reached out to Abijit Ganguly for a comment and deemed the act of using his joke “plagiarism”.
It’s ridiculous. Honestly speaking, we are all aware of what The Kapil Sharma Show stands for today. But this is just lifting of material from somebody who does this full-time, it’s just stealing, it’s plagiarism to the core.
He said that he has been performing the joke in question “for the last three years.”
I have been doing this joke for the last three years. Most people who have come for any show of mine would’ve heard this joke. A lot of people have told me that this is one of their favourite jokes. Two weeks back I put this out on YouTube and it got some amount of traction.
On taking legal action, Ganguly said:
Lot of people are asking me ‘are you going to sue them?’ But at the end of the day, Sony is a conglomerate, and I have limited time and money to invest in something like this. How much can I chase around further? Already some journalist friends are telling me that Sony is putting pressure on media houses to not cover this story. Already their powerplay is pretty evident in the way they flex their muscles. I haven’t heard anything from Sony or Kapil Sharma.
“I Dont Think It Matters to Them”
Ganguly stressed on the attention that should be given to plagiarism.
I’m not saying that Kapil Sharma or Kiku Sharda must be watching videos online and saying ‘arre yahan se uthate hain’ (Oh, let’s pick it up from here). But someone from their writing team is clearly doing this. And it all boils down to what is the top-down directive. If plagiarism had been an issue, they would’ve given a warning/notice to their writers, but I don’t think it matters to them at all. So what do you do about it?
He likened this case of intellectual property theft to being as good as depriving him of his livelihood.
This is something that is coming on national television, so now I can’t do it ever. It’ll look like I’m lifting the joke. This is my bread and butter, this is like as good as stealing from me.
Ganguly further added that this is not a publicity stunt.
From my side, I know that I’m not doing this for publicity or anything of the sort. I was really gutted when I saw this and it was an impulsive action to write that post. This is basically taking away our bread and butter. What I’m looking for is an acknowledgment from them that this has happened, and on the same platform if they can give credit where it’s due, that’s all I want. I’m not looking to sue, I can’t do all that.
The Quint also reached out to Sony Entertainment for a comment. No response was forthcoming at the time of this story was published.
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