Kunal Kamra Asked To Vacate His Home, Warns Comedians About Having A Political Opinion

If there was ever a movie being made on freedom of speech, I bet it would be called 50 Shades of Grey. And half of those shades will probably be called ‘taking offense’. Because what an individual is free to speak and what he can/should be speaking is basically an intense grey area that we’ll possibly never manage to navigate. Currently, stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra is swimming in these very treacherous waters.

The last one year hasn’t been kind to Kunal Kamra. It started in March last year, with him receiving death threats over his video, ‘Patriotism & The Government’ in which he spoke against demonetisation, the JNU situation and a couple of more things that weren’t well received by a segment of the audience.

Image Source

Only a few days ago, Kamra deactivated his Twitter account. He claims to have not done it under any duress. But Twitter taking screenshots of his old jokes, which were jibes at various religions, and criticising them was widely deemed to be the reason.

And now, in a final show of cards, the comedian has decided to speak up about all the backlash he has faced until now and how it has affected his standing in the society.

In a Facebook post on his profile, Kunal Kamra has penned down what seems like a cautionary tale for young comedians, warning them that expressing political opinions comes with a gigantic price tag.

Kamra, in the post, lists down everything that has been adversely affected in his life in light of the backlash. He even shared a screenshot of his chat messages with his landlady, who has asked him to vacate his house because of his political opinions.

Younger Comedians,I don't have any comedy advice for you. I just wanted to share a few things that I have…

Posted by Kunal Kamra on Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Here’s the full Facebook post:

Younger Comedians,
I don’t have any comedy advice for you. I just wanted to share a few things that I have experienced:
As a comedian having a political opinion comes at a cost. Perhaps, you are thinking ‘What is the big deal in making fun of people in power?’…But there are consequences. A corporation will call you 2 days before your show and say “Sorry, We’ll have to cancel this one because our CEO is a big fan of the PM and we don’t want any political jokes”. You protest as you asked them this exact question 40 days ago…but they respond saying “He only joined last week, but let us work together on something soon”.
Or you are booked for a news conclave kind of event when someone from a political party decides to show up at the last minute. You get a call saying “We don’t want to take a risk as our guests are really powerful people who we can’t piss off, so we are entirely cancelling the comedy session”. The next day you see a photo of another comedian performing there saying “What an honour it was perform at….”
Private shows are mostly out of the question because they want clean family friendly humour (most are wedding enquiries). Brands commission you to work, get you to make a piece and then don’t use it at all because “He’s ok but his affiliations with these radical activist types could land us into trouble. You know people na… they just nitpick at everything”. Then you see a colleague posting “What an honour it was to be working for this for this brand”.
Public figures who have some power will continuously tell you on DM that they love your work but they will never share your stuff or stick up for you. When asked by newspapers about you, they deny even knowing you or having seen any of your work. You often think, ‘I don’t need this validation, the joy of doing stand up is enough”. Then you get a FB message enquiry. You give them your number to take it forward. Then he starts abusing you, telling you how much he hates you and how he’s going to put your number out in public. You wonder if you should to take legal action but you think ‘Fuck it, eventually I will just change my number anyway as too many people have it’. A few college shows & mostly live ticketed shows will be your source of income. No you will not be going international anytime soon because ‘Sir NRI log ko desh ka bare main acha sun na hai, aur nostalgia feel hona chahiye. NRI log ko india main kya chal raha hai malum hi nahi hai.’ Then you see a colleague posting “Thank you Hong Kong for being such a kind audience”. Slowly and steadily you will even see that comedians who started out with you, don’t want to be seen with you on social media because they don’t want to risk what they have going for themselves. You are ‘Ya I get it, our friendship doesn’t need insta validation.
One day your land lady will ask you to vacate her house and look for another place because of your political opinion. And while all this going on and you’re particularly suicidal, HDFC will message you asking you if you’ve linked your Aadhar Card. So CHOOSE wisely about the comedian you want to become.
Also I’m looking for a 1 BHK in Shivaji Park. Lemme know if anyone knows of anything available!

 

The post has garnered both support and opposition.

There are those who believe that he deserved it, because of Kamra’s political standings and blatant disregard for religious/political sentiments in his jokes.

But there was a section, his supporters, who urged him to not lose hope and keep fighting the system.

In the light of such ostracism, it will be interesting to watch what Kunal Kamra’s POA will be. For now, we’re still in the grey.

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.