Kunal Kamra

Kunal Kamra (born 3 October 1988) is an Indian standup comedian known for his observational comedy about absurdities of life. His performances include jokes about politics, cabbies, bachelor life and ridiculous TV advertisements.[1]

Kunal Kamra
Birth nameKunal Kamra
Born (1988-10-03) 3 October 1988
Mahim, Mumbai, India
Notable works and rolesShut up Ya Kunal, Why Are We Even
Websitekunalkamra.in

In 2020, he was banned from flying for three months by five Indian air carriers after an incident on an IndiGo flight, where he "allegedly heckled" the Indian news anchor Arnab Goswami.[2][3][4]

Career

Kunal Kamra was born on 3 October 1988, in Mahim, Mumbai, India.[5] Kamra grew up in Mumbai, and joined Jai Hind College for a degree in commerce. He dropped out in the second year of his graduation to start working as a production assistant in Prasoon Pandey's ad film production house Corcoise Films, where he worked for eleven years.[6][7]

He started performing as a stand-up comedian in 2013, with a gig at the Canvas Laugh Club in Mumbai. A clip of one of his gigs, uploaded on YouTube in 2017, lead to him receiving death threats for his satirical take on Indian hyper-nationalism.[7] He started his eponymous titled web-series Shut Up Ya Kunal in July 2017 along with Ramit Verma.[8] The episodes typically feature a conversation with one or more invited guests, interposed with clips of news segments or debates, edited for humour.[9] His best performances include jokes about cabbies, bachelor life and ridiculous TV advertisements.[1]

On 1 March 2017, he released a comedy video titled "Patriotism and the Government" on YouTube mocking the Indian banknote demonetization, the government and the attitude of Indians towards the army.[10] He received several death threats for uploading the video.[11] In 2018, he shared that he was asked by his landlady to vacate the premise due to "political issues".[12]

Incident on Indigo Flight

On 28 January 2020, Kamra, while travelling on an IndiGo flight, confronted the news anchor Arnab Goswami, inviting him to debate with him. Kamra had raised questions about Arnab's coverage of issues on national affairs and the suicide of Rohith Vemula.[13] Kamra later released a 1.51-minute long video of the incident on Twitter, which showed a non responsive Arnab while being questioned by Kamra.[14][15] The next day, Indigo banned Kamra from boarding its flight for a period of six months.[16]

The same day, government-owned airline Air India banned him indefinitely. Indian aviation minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, tweeted that other airlines should follow suit and ban Kamra to ensure that an example was set.[17][18] Next day, other airlines SpiceJet and GoAir also banned him indefinitely. The ban was criticized for being excessive for the incident and against the existing rules of DGCA.[19]

Film maker Anurag Kashyap refused to fly in the IndiGo airlines due to their decision to ban Kamra.[13] Two passengers of IndiGo also protested and displayed placards in the plane, in support of Kamra.[20]

Kamra has issued a legal notice to IndiGo against the travel ban demanding a compensation of ₹25 lakh (US$35,000).[16]

Accusations of contempt of court

After Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on 11 November 2020, Kamra made a series of tweets critical of the Supreme Court. Eight people accused Kamra of contempt of court and sued him.[21] The Attorney General K. K. Venugopal gave his mandatory approval to initiate contempt proceedings related to the tweets.[22] Kamra said he continued to believe that "the silence of the Supreme Court of India on matters of other’s personal liberty cannot go uncriticised." He does not intend to retract the tweets nor apologise for them. He asked that the time that may be allotted for hearing his contempt case should be spent on more important cases pending before the court.[23][24]

Works

Shut Up Ya Kunal

In 2017, Kunal launched a YouTube podcast titled Shut Up Ya Kunal along with his friend Ramit Verma. The show features Kamra engaged in an informal discussion with politicians and activists from both ends of the spectrum.[8][25][26][27] The videos are interspersed with news clips of the guests contradicting their own statements to comic effect.[26][25] Ramit Verma of the satirical Facebook page PeeingHuman is the show's creative director and editor.[10][28] The first episode aired on July 20, 2017 and featured Madhukeshwar Desai, the vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing.[8] The episode featuring JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid reached around a million views within hours of release.

List of Shut Up Ya Kunal Episodes
No. Guests
1 Madhukeshwar Desai, (Vice-president of the BJP Youth Wing)
2 Priyanka Chaturvedi, (ex National Spokesperson, Congress)[29]
3 Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid (JNU students)
4 Karuna Nundy (Supreme Court Lawyer) and Siddharth Varadarajan (Co-founder, The Wire)
5 Shehla Rashid (ex Vice President, JNU) and Jignesh Mevani (MLA Vadgam, Gujarat)
6 Ravish Kumar (NDTV)
7 Kavita Krishnan, Politburo Member, CPI-ML and Secretary, All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA).
8 Ravish Kumar (NDTV Journalist) [Part 2]
9 Asaduddin Owaisi, MP and President, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)
10 Atishi (Aam Aadmi Party) and Shweta Shalini (Bharatiya Janata Party)
11 Javed Akhtar (poet, lyricist, and screenwriter) and Yogendra Yadav (politician, psephologist, and President of Swaraj India)
12 Milind Deora (ex MP and President of Congress Mumbai) and Sachin Pilot (Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan)
13 Arvind Kejriwal (CM, Delhi)
14 Javed Akhtar (poet, lyricist, and screenwriter) and Yogendra Yadav (politician, psephologist, and President of Swaraj India) (Part 2)
15 Anubhav Sinha (Director) and Anand Gandhi
16 Manish Sisodia (Deputy CM, Delhi) and Sanjay Singh (Rajyasabha MP) (Aam Aadmi Party)
17 Tejasvi Surya (MP, Bangalore South)[30]
18 Sanjay Raut (MP, Rajya Sabha, Maharashtra)[31]

Other Works
Name Year Genre Channel Notes
Canvas Laugh Club 2013 Comedy YouTube Live stand-up shows.
One Mic Stand[32] 2019 Comedy Amazon Prime Video Mentor to Shashi Tharoor
Why Are We Even[33] 2020 Art

Podcast

 YouTube Philosophical conversations and creative videos on existential issues. Five episodes till October 2020, on/with Rajneesh, Aamir Aziz, Irrfan Khan, Kanhaiya Kumar, Acharya Prashant, and Anand Gandhi.
Team Baan: Monday Morning Podcast[34][35] 2020 Podcast YouTube Weekly political discussions with (the owner of Twitter parody account named) 'ROFL Gandhi'.

References
  1. "Kunal Kamra chance encounter with stand up comedy". Archived from the original on 2019-03-21.
  2. "Comedian put on no-fly list for heckling right-wing journalist on plane". The Independent. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  3. Sharma, Niharika. "A comedian heckles a "nationalist" news anchor—and riles the Indian government". Quartz India. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  4. "Vistara bans comedian Kunal Kamra till April 27 for 'heckling' Arnab Goswami on IndiGo flight". cnbctv18.com. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  5. "Kunal Kamra birth place - Mahim". Archived from the original on 2019-03-21.
  6. "Murthy, Neeraja (2017-07-17). "Bring your brains along". The Hindu. Retrieved 22 May 2018". Archived from the original on 15 October 2018.
  7. Chatterjee, Suprateek (2018-03-16). "Kunal Kamra: The accidental revolutionary". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  8. Merelli, Annalisa. "Ultra right-wing versus ultra spineless—Kunal Kamra sums up Indian politics in 2019". Quartz India. Archived from the original on 2019-11-01. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  9. "D'souza, Dipti Nagpaul (11 March 2018). "Don't Get Mad, Get Funny: Kunal Kamra on why his standup comedy is edgy, funny but completely safe". The Indian Express. Retrieved 27 May 2018". Archived from the original on 21 March 2019.
  10. "'Nobody Buys a Ticket to Put You on a Pedestal of Wokeness': Kunal Kamra, on the Potential & Limitations of Political Comedy in India". Dead Ant. 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  11. "Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra receives death threats for his sketch on patriotism- Entertainment News, Firstpost". Firstpost. 16 March 2017. Archived from the original on 20 March 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  12. "Kunal Kamra asked to vacate his house: 'As a comedian having a political opinion comes at a cost'- Entertainment News, Firstpost". Firstpost. 25 January 2018. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  13. "Anurag Kashyap refuses to fly IndiGo to support comedian Kunal Kamra". gulfnews.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  14. "Kunal Kamra barred from flying Indigo, Air India". The Hindu. 28 January 2020. Archived from the original on 30 January 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  15. "SpiceJet bans Kunal Kamra, Twitter reminds the airline of Pragya Thakur incident". Bangalore Mirror. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  16. NETWORK, LIVELAW NEWS (1 February 2020). "Kunal Kamra Issues Legal Notice To Indigo Airlines Against Travel Ban; Demands Rs. 25L Compensation [Read Notice]". livelaw.in. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  17. Chowdhury, Anirban (2020-02-02). "Is Kunal Kamra right in seeking damages from IndiGo for flying ban? Here's what experts say". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  18. Chandra, Jagriti (30 January 2020). "Kunal Kamra was not unruly, says IndiGo pilot who flew the comedian". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 1 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  19. Mishra, Mihir; Chowdhury, Anirban (31 January 2020). "And the joke's on… Kunal Kamra flight bans". The Economic Times. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  20. Staff, Scroll. "Watch: Passengers onboard an IndiGo flight protest against flying ban on comedian Kunal Kamra". Scroll.in. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  21. "Comedian Kunal Kamra Faces Contempt Charges Over Supreme Court Tweets". NDTV.com. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  22. "Initiate criminal contempt against Kunal Kamra for derogatory tweets against Supreme Court judge, says Attorney General". Hindustan Times. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  23. Correspondent, Legal (13 November 2020). "Kunal Kamra refuses to apologise, retract his tweets". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  24. Service, Tribune News. "'No lawyers, no apology': Comedian Kunal Kamra reacts to 'contempt proceedings' against him". Tribuneindia News Service. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  25. "Kunal Kamra - Artist Profile". eventseeker.com. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  26. Rao, Soumya. "A new Indian comedy podcast is finally making politicians laugh. How many will say Shut Up Ya Kunal?". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 2019-03-21. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  27. "Kunal Kamra - Artist Profile". eventseeker.com. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  28. "Modi & Goswami 'Have Done More Damage To Indian Media Than Anyone': PeeingHuman Creator Ramit Verma". Dead Ant. 2019-02-18. Archived from the original on 2019-10-20. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  29. ""Please Don't 'Shut Up Ya Kunal': Enjoying Politics Through Comedy". The Quint. Retrieved 27 May 2018". Archived from the original on 15 October 2018.
  30. Shut Up Ya Kunal - Episode 17 : Tejasvi Surya, retrieved 2020-04-03
  31. "Shut Up Ya Kunal - Episode 18 : Sanjay Raut". Retrieved 18 November 2020.
  32. https://www.amazon.com/One-Mic-Stand-S1/dp/B081FDPJWD
  33. Why Are We Even - Chapter 5 : Kanhaiya Kumar (in Hindi), retrieved 2020-08-13
  34. Team Baan - Episode 1 (in Hindi), retrieved 2020-09-20
  35. "What is #TeamBaan? Here's all you need to know". Free Press Journal. Retrieved 2020-10-03.
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