While Comedy Nights Bachao Taaza is known for insulting celebrities and taking a dig at everyone on the show, Tannishtha Chatterjee who made an appearance on the show as part of the promotions for her recent film Parched was not having it and walked out of show over the roast citing racial abuse. The actress then took to Facebook and bashed the show in an open letter criticising the show content.
“Something has shocked me out of my wits yesterday. I was invited as a guest to a popular comedy show called comedy night bachao to promote my latest release Parched with my director Leena yadav and my co-actor Radhika Apte. I was told that the flavor of the show is COMEDY and the purpose is to roast, humor, and offend. My perception of roast was formed by all the SNLs I watched over the years, and the commonly held perception that a roast is a celebratory humour at someone’s expense. It is a mock counter to a toast. I was actually looking forward to be roasted,” she wrote.
However once the show began, Chatterjee writes that she was horrified when she realised that the only quality that they found worth roasting about her was her skin tone.
“It began with “aap ko jamun bahut pasand hoga zaroor… kitna jamun khaya aapne bachpan se?” And went on in that direction… the only thing they could roast about a dark-skinned actress was of course her dark skin. They could identify me only with that. I could not believe I was sitting in a nationally televised comedy show in 2016 in Mumbai amid such regressive( I cant call it humor), and blatantly racist content. Though I was feeling suffocated, I decided to give it another chance, and sat through another equally offensive segment,” she continued.
Since nothing changed, Chatterjee states that she had to leave. “In a country where we still sell fair n lovely/handsome and show adverts, where people don’t get jobs because of their complexion, where every matrimonial advert demands a fair bride or groom and the color bias is so strong, in a society which has a deep-seated problem with dark skin, which also has deep roots in our caste system , in a country where dark skin is marginalized, making fun of it is not roast,” she said, adding that her annoyment had nothing to do with the show at a personal level.
“ It leads to a larger debate. Why does skin tone still lend itself to jokes? How is it funny to call someone dark? I don’t get it.. In a India of 2016 I still have to be apologetic about my skin tone? What is this white-skin hangover? Where does all our pride as a nation go away when it comes to the acceptance that most of us have a darker skin tone? Once I was asked “ Your surname is Chatterjee? Oh you are Brahmin.. What is your mothers surname? Maitra! Oh…. She is Brahmin too…” And then indirectly he hinted how is my skin tone still dark… ? This is so deep rooted and linked to our perceptions of caste, class and skin tone. Upper caste =Fair skin =touchable. Lower caste=dark skin=untouchable,” she wrote.
'It's all for publicity'
While the TV channel Colours has since apologised to the actress on Twitter about the whole fiasco, host Krushna Abhishek is not a bit apologetic about the whole issue. “Tannishtha is going overboard. She is doing this for publicity. We always meet the actors before they come on the show. I had asked her if she had seen the show before and if she was familiar with our (roast) concept. She said she hadn’t seen the show. She hadn’t watched even AIB Roast. If she didn’t know what it was, she shouldn’t have come on the show. Secondly, we gave more importance to Radhika Apte who is a bigger star. That must have also been a problem for Tannishtha,” he said.
Nandita Das lends support
Nandita Das who is known for promoting the dark skin beauty and running campaigns to end the colour bias in India has come out in support of Chatterjee in a powerful post. “ To be sexist, racist, regressive is just not funny. It is not cool. These days prejudices seem to surface more unabashedly. But maybe it is good that it is all coming out and no more hidden, so at least it can be addressed. Since I started the #darkisbeautiful campaign, I have heard so many horror stories of people (mainly women) being harassed, abused and undermined because of the colour of their skin, that nothing shocks me anymore,” she wrote. “I feel sad for those who stoop so low. It is time we speak up against any discrimination which is on the basis of colour, cast, class, creed and gender. This is not about #Tannishtha being “roasted”, but it is about the kind of world we are creating and want to be part of.”
