The comedy collective All India Bakchod (AIB) has released a statement on social media, updating the state of affairs since the time sexual harassment allegations were made against Co-Founder Gursimran Khamba and CEO Tanmay Bhat’s suspension. The organisation announced itself ‘Dead for foreseeable future’ in the statement.
It read, “The AIB YouTube channel is for all intents and purposes, dead for the foreseeable future -- there will be no new sketches anytime soon. It sucks, but it is what it is. If and when we decide to release other content on the channel (for e.g. stand-up clips). you will be the first to know.”
The time has been rough for the organisation since the leadership tore apart in the wave of #MeToo movement that did not spare the company. They lost business overnight and due to which the company had to shut its office and let go of its people.
The statement announced the departure of its Co-Founder Gursimran Khamba CEO Tanmay Bhat. It mentioned, “Gursimran Khamba will no longer be involved in operations at AIB and will be working independent of us. Tanmay Bhat’s suspension has been lifted. He will no longer hold the position of CEO.”
The letter addressed the issue of sexual harassment as well. It stated, “We’d also like to state that we at AIB have had an IC and anti-harassment system in place from the start. However, we recognise that the culture at work may not have been perfect and simply put, we need to be better. To that end, we maintain that Tanmay Bhat’s lapse of judgement regarding Utsav Chakraborty was egregious.”
It read, “With regards to Gursimran Khamba, an External Committee (EC) was appointed to look into the allegations made against him in October. The EC comprised of two experienced senior members — a senior partner at a law firm and a diversity consultant — and its mandate was to conduct a fair investigation into the matter. As required in such cases, the proceedings remain confidential.”
However, during the course of the investigation, we were informed that Gursimran Khamba had stepped away from the process, citing issues with the procedure. The EC was unable to conclude the investigation on account of his withdrawal.”
the AIB statement:
Khamba was accused of sexual harassment by a former partner, which he denied. Bhat was accused of ignoring allegations of sexual harassment made against former AIB employee Utsav Chakraborty. Later on, Bhat accepted that he was aware of the allegations, but didn’t do anything about it.
Soon after the comedy group, All India Bakchod (AIB) issued a statement confirming Gursimran Khamba’s exit, the comedian announced his next venture Light@27 in a long note on his Instagram account. Light@27 is a comedy consultancy that will offer content and strategy solutions across live and digital media. In his post, Khamba also mentioned why he withdrew from the inquiry against him.
Khamba’s Instagram post:
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