Are The Lights Dimming On The Kapil Sharma Show? by Suhel Johar

 

Much has been written and discussed about the mid-air tiff between Kapil Sharma and his colleague Sunil Grover. The drama continues and is getting a new angle with each passing day. The latest being that it looks like the lights are dimming for The Kapil Sharma Show since Sony TV is considering to pull the plug on the show and cancel its plans to renew its contract with the show for an earlier announced Rs 106 crore deal. There are quite a few reasons that have influenced Sony TV in its decision to consider scrapping the show. First and foremost is the reason that the core members of the team did not show up at the time of the shooting as a sign of protest for Sharma's misbehaviour towards them.

Secondly, the show producers are failing to rope in the biggies of Bollywood to appear as guests on the show. The reason behind that could be the reports about Sharma's haughty behaviour and a lack of professionalism. Thirdly, the dwindling TRPs of the show over the past few months are a major concern for the channel.

Kapil Sharma does not seem to be too bothered about the show since he is eyeing a film career for himself. Right now he is busy with the production of his two films – Firangi in Hindi and a yet untitled film in Punjabi.

 

Coming back to the controversy despite Kapil Sharma’s public apology, comedian Sunil Grover has decided to quit the ongoing The Kapil Sharma Show. Displaying solidarity with Sunil his teammates Ali Asgar, Sugandha Mishra and Chandan Prabhaskar continue to boycott the show. The only comedians from the original team to be found around Kapil on the sets are Kiku Sharda aka Palak and Rochelle Rao (who plays the nurse).

It may be recalled that on 16 March, Sharma and his team mates from The Kapil Sharma Show were on board a Melbourne-Delhi-Mumbai flight when the comedian, allegedly in an inebriated state, created a commotion.

Apparently, Sharma had been drinking steadily and in a drunken state hurled abuse at a team member and as Grover stepped in to stop him, Sharma ended up slapping him. The two comedians then got into a war of words on Twitter causing speculations on what exactly had transpired on that flight. The incident got Sharma a fair bit of backlash.

While Kapil has apologised to Sunil on Twitter, the latter did not accept the apology. Sharma went on to tweet his apology to Grover by saying, 'sorting it out as family'. Grover chose to respond on Twitter as well, through an elaborate post in which he minced no words. His stingy note asked Sharma to be more grateful. He even advised Sharma not to consider himself 'God' and ensure that he does not consider the less successful or talented colleagues as inferior.

Amongst the few who came forward to extend support to Kapil Sharma was his professional rival Krushna Abhishek who said that friends often fight and there is nothing unusual about it. It is interesting to note that Krushna, who hosted the now defunct Comedy Nights Bachao (a show that replaced Kapil’s Comedy Nights) had expressed interest in working with Kapil again. But apparently Sony TV and the makers of the show are not interested in him and instead have been approaching other ace-comedians to replace Sunil, Chandan and Ali for the time being. Last week Raju Srivastava, Ehsaan Qureshi and Sunil Pal gave their best shot to tickle the funny bone of the viewers of Kapil Sharma’s show but their dry humour made the fans miss the older team even more. But with no other option left, the channel once again approached Raju Srivastava and asked him to join The Kapil Sharma Show team as a participant for a few episodes.

Incidentally, Sony TV wanted to keep Raju Shrivastava’s entry in the show a secret. On March 29, Sony TV sent out a tweet, teasing that someone new is going to join The Kapil Sharma Show. “Koi aa raha hai Kapil ke mohalle mein apni kalakari ka dhamaka karne (Someone is coming to Kapil’s neighbourhood to showcase their talent). Stay tuned to know what’s going to happen in #TheKapilSharmaShow,” read the tweet. But the media burst Sony TV’s balloon of secret and revealed about Raju Shrivastava’s entry in the show even before he could start shooting for it.

 

As mentioned earlier Raju was roped in only for a few episodes and not as a replacement for Sunil Grover. Because Sony TV was hoping that Sunil will have a change of heart and he will get back. But since Sunil is adamant and has mentioned that he is not going to return  to the show even if his fees were doubled. Maybe Sony TV will continue with Raju. Interestingly, besides Navjot Sidhu and a few others Raju too had unsuccessfully mediated between Kapil and Sunil to broker peace between them. After his failed efforts to bring them together Raju had remarked that, “Kapil can’t handle the pressure of success”.

Kapil also recently introduced his long-time girlfriend Ginni aka Bhavneet Chatrath on social media, which has been seen as a ploy to divert attention from his fight with Sunil.

Despite Kapil putting a brave front and acting as if he is not affected at all by Sunil’s refusal to shoot for his show. Helplessness and despair writ large on Kapil’s face in the two episodes that were telecast last week. It is not just some of his team members but even some of the celebrities who don’t want to feature in Kapil’s show anymore. In fact Kapil had to cancel shoots last week because he couldn’t get big celebrities as guests on his show.

Like last week this week’s episode too has no big celebrity featuring in his show. Instead, it is the team of judges for Sony’s upcoming reality show, Sabse Bada Kalakar including - Raveena Tandon, Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi who will be seen in the show that will air in the night today (April 1).

However, Kapil might be relieved as he will not have to shoot for Sunday’s episode this week since it is Indian Idol’s finale on Sunday and the finale episode of the singing reality show will run beyond its regular time. Ironically, even though there will be no Kapil Sharma Show on Sunday, Sunil Grover will returns in his Kapil Sharma show avatars for the finale of Indian Idol. Yes one will get to see don the frazzled grey wig to play Mashoor Gulati and then step into drag as Rinku Bhabhi.

 

Earlier this week AIB made an interesting offer to  Sunil Grover to work with them. The comedy group in their latest episode of On Air With AIB, has offered  Grover to join them and create some 'smart', funny content. The second season of On Air With AIB is in full swing and the casual avatar of our four beloved comedians is being appreciated by all, this smart plug-in for a post in the company is something really hilarious and smart at the same time.

The appeal was made by Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya as they finished talking about fake news and its implications, in the latest episode. They didn't forget to give him a security insurance as well plus an assurance that the only thing that gets thrown at AIB is pillows and no gaalis or chappals.