Mumbai: Actor and comedian Krushna Abhishek, who was accused of repeatedly joking about Tannishtha Chatterjee’s dark skin on his show ‘Comedy Nights Bachao’, called her Facebook post ‘a publicity stunt’.
The ‘Parched’ star, on her Facebook account, has written a detailed post accusing comedians Krushna Abhishek and Bharti Singh of hurling racist jokes at her. After her story went viral on social media, Colors TV, the channel that airs the show, has apologised to the star and ensured her that the episode will be free of any degrading jokes on her.
While speaking to dna, the comedian called it a publicity stunt.
He said, “ 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.”
Krushna speculated that Radhika Apte, co-star of Tannishtha in the movie ‘Parched’ and ‘a bigger star’, who was given more attention, must have irked the actress. He added, “…we gave more importance to Radhika Apte who is a bigger star. That must have also been a problem for Tannishtha."
The angry television star clarified that he had neither called her 'kaali kalooti' nor had he provoked her to walk off. In fact, as per Krushna’s statement, it was his idea to send them off as they ‘had finished doing the film integration with the show’.
“I didn't say that and I don't know who said that. In any case, it is a roast format aur hamne wahi masti ki jo hamesha karte hai. In fact, we have toned it down from what it was earlier. Initially, she was enjoying, but after a while she told us she doesn't like this kind of mass humour… As for her walking away from the show, that's not true…after three acts, we realised that she was not enjoying the show at all. We thought she will spoil the show, so it was mine and director Nikul Desai's decision that we will send them because we had finished doing the film integration with the show," he concluded saying.
