Comedian, Bharti Singh came under fire for making body-shaming comments about Ayesha Khan on her show, 'Laughter Chefs Season 3'. Here's what happened.
Comedian and television personality, Bharti Singh, is back to her usual antics of making her audiences laugh. This time around, she has returned to the silver screen as the host of the popular reality cooking show, Laughter Chefs Season 3. Her return, however, was marked by controversy as most people who tuned into the recent episode of her show left disappointed after seeing her make body-shaming remarks. In case you haven't caught up with the episode in question, here's all that went down.
In the recent episode of Laughter Chefs Season 3, which aired earlier this week, the show was graced by Kapil Sharma and the cast of Kis Kisko Pyar Karoon 2. As you can already guess, they were there to promote their upcoming film. The cast members, including Warina Hussain, Ayesha Khan, Tridha Dutta, and Parul Gulati, made a superb entry onto the set while dancing to the song, Pahli Uddi Furrr from their film. Everything was going well and good up until this point, that is, until Bharti commented on actress, Ayesha's appearance. After taking a look at Ayesha, Bharti remarked, saying, "Jab saari heroine aayi na, mujhe Ayesha ko dekh ke laga, Krushna phir se aa gaya, kyunki uski tarah lambi hai na." Simply put, what she meant by this is that Ayesha’s height resembled that of her fellow comedian, Krushna Abhishek.
Since Bharti is known for her comedic flair, the comments she made in a seemingly derogatory tone about a person’s body, especially that of a woman’s, did not sit right with the audience. Ayesha herself appeared visibly uncomfortable with the comment directed at her, prompting her to swiftly move towards Kapil Sharma while covering her stomach. While Bharti's comments were met with some laughter from a few of the judges and contestants, an unimpressed Kapil soon clocked the comedian by asking, “Was this a compliment or what?” Parul Gulati also defended Ayesha by telling Bharti, “You shouldn't have said that.” To this, Bharti was quick to retort, “Sorry, I am pregnant.”
Within hours of the episode's television broadcast, clips of the segment spread like fire on social media, drawing a whole lot of criticism from both Bharti's fans and the show's viewers. Expressing their disappointment, many fans pointed out that, since Bharti herself has often been a target of body-shaming since the beginning of her career, she should have been more empathetic. A social media user wrote, “Bharti should know better. She has faced this herself for years. Making someone else the butt of the same kind of joke is just disappointing.” A second comment read, “This wasn’t funny and was just disrespectful to women of larger sizes, even though Ayesha isn’t even that big.”
A third user wrote, “Bharti is just a misogynist. Her mindset doesn’t change just because she’s a working woman,” with another user sympathising with Ayesha, writing, “I really felt bad for her. The comment was inappropriate.” Apart from these, many users also argued that comedians like Bharti should bear in mind that their humour does not humiliate or demean others, particularly on national television.
Watch the viral clip here.
What are your thoughts on the remarks that Bharti Singh made about Ayesha Khan's body?
Also read: AP Dhillon Gives Mohammad Siraj A Shoutout During Pune Concert, Fans Comment, 'Bichda Hua Bhai...'