Karan Johar takes gay digs galore with Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor

By Subhash K. Jha -

December 24, 2014 - 10:33 AM IST

Karan Johar takes gay digs galore with Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor

Days after, the industry is in a daze. The youtube rage, the satirical quartet calling themselves the All India Bakchod proved once and for all that our Hindi film industry, notorious for its inability to take jokes at itself, does have a sense of humour.

They had proved it earlier with their irreverent potshot-plotted 'Genius Of The Year' video where Alia Bhatt sportingly spoofed her own ditsy image. This video was a rage beyond all argument.

However nothing that the Bakchods have done for the awakening of self-deprecatory humour among Bollywood folks could match what transpired this weekend.

On Saturday night at the National Sports Club Of India (Mumbai) the irrepressible Bakchods got Karan Johar, Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh together on stage for the most irreverent and risque interactive session in the history of the entertainment industry.

Sample this (the words not exact quotes): "Karan Johar has become a fashion designer. Quite understandable, considering how much time he has spent in the closet."

But the piece de resistance was yet to come. In a masterstroke of homo-erotic humour Ranveer Singh got down on the stage floors on all fours in front of Karan Johar and said, "I'll do anything to work in your film."

To this Karan retorted, "That's my position you are in."

The industry seems divided in its appreciation of the no-holds-barred humour. A young forthright actress said, "It's all very well for Karan, Arjun and Ranveer to take off-colour digs at one another not caring how radically unconventional their humour looks to the outside world. Sorry, I don't mean to sound like a prude, but we (celebrities) have a social responsibility. We are looked up to as role models. Getting down on all-fours on stage is not the best way to live up to your fans' expectations."

However a successful young producer pooh-poohed the moral stance saying, "It was made very clear that the humour would be for adults only. As adults we are mature enough to handle gay and sex jokes. I think the Backchod event on Saturday night was a turning point in our film industry's lifespan. It proved we are not a humourless organization."

Says Bakchod's Rohan Joshi, "Ranveer, Arjun and Karan are just the coolest people I've met. Instinctively they understood the format. They've watched the American 'roasts' and said, sure let's try this. So it was a huge huge leap of faith for them to take."

Rohan can't praise his 'roast'er of celebs enough. "Honestly, I think it was more a triumph for Karan, Ranveer and Arjun than us. Writing insult comedy is a comedian's job. But Ranveer, Arjun and Karan putting their trust to our content and saying, 'Screw it, take our pants off' is really a commendable thing. And it helped that we didn't approach the humour with a typical mindset."

Significantly the Backchod's iconoclastic star-dismantle exercise happened during the awards season. Says Rohan, "In the midst of the awards season this event is entirely the opposite of what the awards do with the stars. Instead of everyone praising one another shallowly at our live performance the stars took a joke on themselves and showed that celebs don't have to take themselves seriously. All credit to Karan, Arjun and Ranveer and their sporting spirit. It's the gutsiest thing I've seen anyone do!"

He hopes that the essence of the humour was understood. "We just hope that everyone understood the spirit of the evening. Our biggest fear is that observers will take a joke from Saturday night out of context and then use it to fuel some kind of a controversy regarding the people on stage. Everything was said as a joke. I hope everyone got it."

The All-India Bakchod, as they choose to call themselves, did not allow journalists into the Saturday night backchat with Karan, Arjun and Ranveer.

Explains Rohan, "We exercised a tight control over media accessibility.We didn't want to run the risk of people misusing Karan, Ranveer and Arjun's trust in us against them to make up silly baseless stories. We didn't want speculation that there were so many jokes about X actress because of some unresolved past history of differences. No such thing. Just a joke! The real purpose of our show on Saturday was to take the sting out of a lot of the harmful speculation."