SHOCKING: Kapil Sharma accused of plagiarism by a stand-up comedian

April 24, 2017 - 3:27 PM IST

After having started off with humble beginnings, the ace comedian cum actor Kapil Sharma went on to reach dizzying heights with ‘Comedy Nights With Kapil’, which was soon followed by ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’. Recently, the show’s TRPs went for a big toss (for the first time ever since its inception) after the infamous mid-air fight between Kapil Sharma and Sunil Grover. The said fight not just resulted in the untimely exit of Sunil Grover, Ali Asgar and Chandan Prabhakar from the show but also affected Kapil Sharma’s market standings as a comedian as well as an actor. Ever since the fight, the makers of ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ have been trying really hard to regain the show’s lost popularity.

SHOCKING: Kapil Sharma accused of plagiarism by a stand-up comedian

Just as one thought that Kapil Sharma and the show were on their way to reclaim its lost glory and credibility, there came another shocker in the form of the stand-up comedian Abijit Ganguly, who has accused Kapil Sharma of plagiarism! Abijit Ganguly wrote a detailed post about how one of his jokes was used in the recent episode of ‘The Kapil Sharma’, which featured the women's National Cricket Team players like Mithali Raj, Veda Krishnamurthy, Jhulan Goswami and Harmanpreet Kaur. Abijit also provided with a video proof of his performance during a stand-up comedy show as well as the said episode wherein Kiku Sharda ‘lifted’ the same joke which was about ‘elder brothers’. Abijit Ganguly blamed that Kiku Sharda even copied the names of the cricketers (Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan) whom he had mentioned during his show.

The following is what Abijit Ganguly had posted on social media:

“Important - Lifting of Joke/Plagiarism by The Kapil Sharma Show

Please share this so that it reaches the folks at The Kapil Sharma's Show or Sony Entrainment Television.

I had released a stand-up bit on Youtube and FB on ‘having an elder brother’ around two weeks back. One of the jokes in the routine is an observational joke on how from from Kapil Dev to Zaheer Khan (citing some other names, such as Harbhajan Singh, Srinath, Kumble) all successful Indian bowlers have been co-incidentally younger brothers, leading to the punch of ‘Do you realise how weird it is that India’s bowling strength depends on the fact that elder brothers never let younger brothers ever bat’. I have been doing this bit for over three years now and most people, who have ever been to my show in the last three, would have heard this. And modesty aside, many have told me that this was one of their favourite jokes.

Yesterday, at around 10:30 PM, I suddenly got a message from a friend on FB who said that my younger brother bowler joke had been lifted in The Kapil Sharma Show. Someone also tweeted out to me informing me of the same. I was genuinely flustered but still wanted to check before drawing any conclusions. Having checked online, I am disappointed and gutted to see that they have indeed done that.

There I saw Kiku Sharda trying to use my joke (and honestly making a mess of it) while Sidhu and others laughed out in their usual hysterical manner as every cell in my body burnt with rage.

I understand that it’s possible for two people to have the same thought, but this is not that. The fact that right two weeks after I released this bit (which got a decent amount of traction), they just happen to use it while awkwardly trying to use the same examples as premise makes it clear what has happened.

A stand-up bit takes a lot of effort to write and fine-tune. As comedians we strive for originality and after having made all the effort in coming out with a unique observation and building a joke around it, when something like this happens it just deflates you.

We comedians make a living from our self-written jokes. It’s what I depend on to run my house. When you lift a joke I have written, you steal from me. It is as good as stealing my wallet, my watch, laptop or just a goddam robbery at my home.

No Kapil Sharma, plagiarism is not OK. It is not OK to do this. It is not OK to lift a man’s joke and do it on national TV where millions will now think you goddam wrote that joke, and if I am to ever perform it, it comes off as I lifted it.

I am feeling angry, and helpless. I just hope there can be enough noise around this, so that it doesn’t happen anymore with anyone else.”