An aam aadmis open letter to Aamir Khan on AIB Roast comments goes

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Posted: 10 years ago

An aam aadmi's open letter to Aamir Khan on AIB Roast comments goes viral on Twitter - Read full letter!

Thu, February 12, 2015 3:01pm UTC by Rashma Shetty Bali3 Comments

Twitter

When PK actor reacted on All India Bakchod's roast, everybody got talking about this controversy yet again

Aamir Khan was one of the few Bollywood stars, who openly condemned the AIB Knockout - Roast of Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor and Karan Johar. AK found the show violent and was not amused with 25 odd gaalis given on the show. He felt he's no longer a teenager to enjoy abusive language.

In a lengthy chat the Satyameva Jayate host took off on the AIB Knockout and further added fuel to the controversy. He even added that he had reprimanded his friends Karan and Arjun for this appearance. While many found a voice in the star, others like us were offended by his double standards. Here's an aam aadmi's letter to Aamir that has got Twitterati talking and even some Bollywood celebs retweeting...

Dear Aamir Khan,

This is about a video of you on the subject of All India Bakchod's Knockout Roast. I agree with many views you expressed. I think it was juvenile, offensive, irresponsible. I agree that being profane for the sake of being profane is not funny. I agree that jokes about identity, color of skin or sexual orientation - particularly blunt, outright insults - are not funny. I saw the Roast. Some of it was funny, some in bad taste. It had multiple content warnings like you can't miss.

I appreciate that you stressed the extent of the right to object, in terms of expressing your dislike and requesting that the offensive speech be discontinued.

If you had kept it at that, I would not have a problem with your views. As someone speaking up for Free Speech for years now, I have a problem when you put the onus of not offending on the speaker with your talk of the creator having responsibility and oh so virtuous nonsense about "dil dukhana" and what not. You claim to be a responsible creator, yet I distinctly recollect speaking up to defend your film PK (which I haven't seen yet) from people who were outraged by whatever insult they perceived in it.

If the responsibility of not offending falls on the creator of the content, then perhaps you are not as ideal as you seemed to imply with the Delhi Belly example and perhaps should have added content warnings of another sort "Caution: Religion discussed here" etc and people objecting should have requested you with folded hands, etc. You know first hand what happens when angry people don't like content. Do you see the anger as your fault?

The opinions you expressed seemed to lack the gravity of understanding. The situation was beyond saying "please" FIRs were filed. There were threats, intimidation. The All India Bakchod videos are offline and they are busy issuing apologies left, right and center. At this point, when you speak of them being responsible for offending, it is the same as saying you are responsible for the vandalized theaters. How you think offense should be expressed is irrelevant when you speak after it has already been expressed. Who you blame can still be applicable and do much damage to free speech overall. "Even Aamir Khan said that you should not offend people".

It isn't the polite requests to desist that are the problem with Free Speech - the subject of the controversy and reason you were asked to comment at all. It is because lives and property are routinely harmed. Voices are silenced. The issue is way bigger than a juvenile video or what you or I think about it, when you expand your opinion into a blanket responsibility on the creator for "Who is responsible for hurt sentiments?"

Because, that question also answers who is responsible for Perumal Murugan being hounded or Shirin Dalvi having to go underground and her newspaper shut down or theaters showing PK being vandalized - with the WRONG ANSWER. People may not follow your guidelines on asking politely, but they will have no problem appropriating your words on the responsibility of those they want to silence to not anger them.

That is how FIRs get filed and threats made and you get invited to comment on a "wrong" done EVEN AFTER APOLOGIES AND THE VIDEO BEING PULLED DOWN. Way past the time for "Please, Sorry, Thank you". Your words end up endorsing intolerance by legitimizing people being offended and having the right to expect the creator to discontinue. You may accept that as your limit, but if others did, then Free Speech wouldn't be a rights issue, it would be a talk show where everyone shares opinions and goes home happy.

When a large voice like yours tells people that people speaking must be careful, and people who get offended can ask them to stop, a thousand voices like mine get raw throats trying to talk sanity on the issue and explain why it is not okay to shut people up just because you don't like what they say. "but even Aamir Khan agrees..." The louder the voice, the more power to heal or damage it has. I request you to be careful with where you lay blame.

Out of stray curiosity and as a side note, I want to ask you if you asked Karan and Arjun to not propagate the videos of the event further - like showing clips to people, like you saw, or putting on youtube - since that is the method you are recommending and you also say that you thought the show was offensive. If you did it, and they listened, perhaps this whole situation wouldn't have happened?

A blogger who cares for the Freedom of Expression.

Vidyut

Filmmakers Tarun Mansukhani and Anurag Kashyap have tweeted this letter too. BollywoodLifers, share your thoughts on AIB and Aamir Khan in the comment box below...

Also watch Aamir Khan's comments on AIB Roast here...

by Taboola

AIB Apology. Minority appeasement or a precedent?

OpIndia Staff / February 9, 2015 / Opinions

In an earlier post, we had mentioned that some of the first people to raise their voices against the AIB roast were a Hindu group and a Christian group. They were followed by many other people eventually but the floodgates opened from there. Today, AIB declared that they had met the Archdiocese of Mumbai and tendered an "Unconditional Apology" to the entire Christian community. They say:

Amidst the din over the AIB Knockout, we've had the opportunity to reach out to some groups who have had questions about the jokes and the taste they were made in.

The Brahman Ekta Seva Sanstha also had some grouse with the AIB, we assume AIB hasn't yet found the time to "reach out" to this group and have a discussion with them let alone apologise. AIB also mention that:

The kind archdiocese acknowledged the fact that we have never been against any community, nor do we bear any ill will towards any community.

Its quite puzzling that although the Archdiocese feels that they don't bear any ill will towards any community, yet it deemed fit to extract an Unconditional Apology from AIB. This entire episode reminds one of the times when Leela Samson deemed it fit to show movies to Christian groups before release so that they are pacified. One is also reminded of the recent case when author Perumal Murugan was asked by an aggrieved caste to issue an unconditional apology for defaming them, and how the entire issue was played up as a Hindutva vs Freedom of Speech battle.

By and large, AIB's response to this controversy has been slightly disappointing. Firstly, taking down the video made people feel they couldn't stand up for what they said. The damage of course was already done and there was no real need to take it down, unless they were threatened by some group, and these threats were never made public by them, which could explain why they felt the need to apologise to a group.

Secondly, the apology has now set the ball rolling for competitive apology demands. As we pointed out above, other groups are bound to latch on to this and ask for their fair share of apology. This could have an effect on all further such events where an artist "offends" a group.

Thirdly, will AIB offer similar unconditional apologies to other "minority" groups? Fat people, Dark people, LGBTs are all "minority" groups, who were slaughtered by AIB using humour. Are apologies reserved only for religious minorities?

As for us, we always believed AIB should have taken this battle to the courts, to silence the intolerant elements and also to make the courts finally set the law straight as to what can be called "offensive". We believe AIB has the financial might, the public support and the legal backing needed to make a fight out of this.

The most interesting aspect of this entire apology episode is yet to play out. Will the offended Christian groups withdraw their complaints thanks to this apology? If so, then will only Hindu groups be left as complainants? And will the entire argument be spun around to show it as yet another Hindutva vs Freedom of Speech issue? Only time will tell, if all groups are given the same privilege of an apology or is it just Minority appeasement.

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Posted: 10 years ago

#10

Originally posted by: Gubbara.

why shouldnt he?
Amir was talking of violence and PK was violent for me and many others.😭 I agree with writer completely.

PK was violent? 🤔

Ok then. There ends the discussion.

For me, Movie conveyed... Stop believing in God-mans and wrong practices of your religions.