AIB Roast, Part II, Uncut Version at India Today Conclave
Comedians Gursimran Khamba, Tanmay Bhat, Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya of AIB Roast fame made their first appearance at the India Today Conclave after their controversial show last month.
Comedians Tanmay Bhat, Gursimran Khamba, Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya of the All India Bakchod (AIB) fame made their first appearance at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi on Saturday after their controversial show last month which was widely panned and later removed from the Internet.
Here are the highlights of their hour-long session on 'The Laugh-Off: Freedom of Speech and the Right to Be Roasted' with moderator Shiv Aroor who, apart from being the target of their banter, was also able to find a more serious side of India's best-known standups:
On the banned AIB Roast
Our parents are happy that our photos were all across the newspapers. It doesn't matter if they were crime pages. When the controversy erupted, they were happy that we finally achieved something. We were liked by most people wherever we performed.
We had no idea our show will start an intense debate on the freedom of expression in the country and we will have an FIR against us. We are normal middle-class kids who fear the police. We were not prepared for what happened. Somebody sent us a picture of the AIB Roast CDs being sold at New Delhi's Palika Bazar.
We had no idea that a day will come when Rakhi Sawant would judge us in TV debates. When our link appeared on Torrent, we knew we had arrived and could retire now.
The funniest incident after Roast
My 87-year-old grandfather saw the show and called all my relatives and said, "Do you guys know what he has done? He has talked about homosexuality." Then we realised we were not in the entertainment business, but infotainment. It's a middle-class welfare show.
AIB boys surface post the roast #Conclave15 #Right2bRoasted http://t.co/IRaa4phZ07India Today (@IndiaToday) March 14, 2015
We just took a selfie with Viswanathan Anand. When he said I also want one with you guys, we knew we had made it. We felt like hugging him and telling him he can take Magnus Carlsen once again. We will be right behind him.
Any regrets?
Yes and no. We have no regrets about the show. We could have always done it better, of course.
We had a lot of fun. A TV channel even called us the bane of Indian society. My cousin took a screenshot of that and made four tee-shirts for us from that. We realised our families have also started trolling against us now.
Any threats over the Roast?
Let's not even go there. But it wasn't as bad as you make it out to be. If we say yes, you will play it with Terminator soundtrack and headline: AIB in danger! People out to kill the bane of India.
Is stand-up comedy respectful?
A guy came to us and asked what we do. We said, "Stand-up." He said, "You mean like Raju Shrivastava? Same?" We said, yes, the same but we do it in English. Then he said, "I see. Get enough for food by that?"
The truth is there was no stand-up comedy in India five years ago. We used to go the bars and say, "Just give us 10 minutes. Nobody will run from here because of us." We had our families behind us. We podcatsted in the beginning. We recorded a two-and-a-half-hour interview with Raju Shrivastava. He has a fascinating life.
If politics goes extinct in India, stand-up comedian will have to change their jobs #Right2bRoasted #Conclave15 http://t.co/ImHc9k04qZIndia Today (@IndiaToday) March 14, 2015
It's been the same with films. They used to insert a five-minute scene with Johnny Lever. If the film is too long, that was the first to be chopped off. He told us that. He used to reach the set of a film. He was told what dress is he wearing that day which explained what kind of character he was playing. That's when he knew his role. You are a Madrasi today or a Punjabi. Then they used to write dialogues for him there.
But things are changing now. Perhaps there will be AIB schools ten years from now where people learn about writing and laughing. But that will happen when we save money from paying for all those lawyers we have to hire today.
Life better or worse after Roast?
We were desperate for more than three years. Now we feel if we were not as popular. People identify us at airports and point towards us. It's good for business, positive, negative, whatever. People started talking about stand-up comedy. They came to know about us. The community of comedians supported us.
They will spare nobody not even their moderator! #AIB #Right2bRoasted #Conclave15 http://t.co/dcnBErk1NQIndia Today (@IndiaToday) March 14, 2015
Rapid Fire
1. Who's better: Modi or Manmohan?
We only want a prime minister. Anybody will do. Politics is our buffet for the stupidities. Hope they keep that coming. The breakthrough year for us was 2010 Commonwealth Games. When the bridge fell, we all died laughing. It's not only India. Even in US, they are after a Hillary Clinton email.
2. Rahul Gandhi?
You never been to a college? Never bunked it? Actually, nobody laughs any longer on Rahul Gandhi jokes because even the audience is tired of laughing at him. Manmohan is silent, Rahul is no more working. How many times can we feed the same to them?
3. So what next?
Aam Aadmi Party. 10 people in college and a bottle of Old Monk. And everybody goes for it. Then one gets up and says I have had enough. Now I am going for naturopathy. I feel sorry for their volunteers. They get this after fighting BJP trolls for six months.
4. Virat Kohli?
Oh, I feel sorry for Virat Kohli. I am sure that is the way he speaks. There should be a translator with him. We just came to know about the row with the reporter. As Delhiites, we were so proud. That's how our boys behave. They don't even have to look to abuse. We are sure if Virat is asked why he did it, he will say, "What to do? I got the feel."
5. Censor Board
Our films will be silent. And black and white. The Censor Board is behaving like the Aam Aadmi Party. A bunch of people hating each other. That also so soon. But this happens with every Censor Board.
6. Selfie culture
Selfie culture is an oxymoron. How can we say anything about that? We just took a selfie with Anand. We read stories about people dying while trying to take a selfie. We feel happy that the stupid gene pool is taking care of itself.
We just came to know about a selfie school in Delhi. They have a six-month course. This can only happen in Delhi. And that too in Karol Bagh, where everybody goes to repair their phones anyway. Customer base taken care of then and there.
7. What else can comedy do?
Comedy brings people together. We made a video after the Delhi gang-rape. People were sensitised. We made a song on the periodic table in our video with Alia Bhatt. It's in schools now and people are asking for more. Comedy is the best way to enter a debate. It disarms people and then you know you can have it easy from there.
8. The best and the worst about Delhi?
The food. And the women. In Mumbai, there is just one season: wet. In Delhi, you have got three or four. Delhi is what you get after our tax money from Mumbai is spent. And Delhiites are aggressive, even when they love.
We have bars in Delhi that have signs outside that say arms and ammunition are not allowed. As if we didn't know. Once some women got offended by our show in Delhi and left. They later returned with a fat man who took us to a corner and said, "This is Delhi. Anybody can shoot a gun here. I don't do it. Anymore."