Kiku Sharda responds to plagiarism charges on The Kapil Sharma Show

26 Apr 2017

On Monday when comedianAbijitGangulycame forward to accuse the team of the Kapil Sharma Showof stealing one of his jokes, it was Kapils team-member Kiku Sharda who had to take the brunt of the barbs as he was the one told the joke on the show. ButKikuis quick to defend himself and his team. He protests, Every stand-up comedian who has worked on television knows that the jokes said by an actor on stage are not his. On theKapilSharmaShowwe have a team of 7-8 writers. We all sit together mulling over ideas, throwing jokes at one another, while one person collects and stores all our ideas on a laptop. It was during one such jamming session that someone came up with a joke about how all fast bowlers are younger siblings because their elder brothers never allow them to bat. I loved the joke and we decided to use it on the show. How was I to know that someone had cracked that joke already? Kikupertinently points out that there are only that many topics on which jokes can be told. Our humour doesnt originate in outer space. It has to do with everyday life and situations. Sibling overshadowing is a common sociological phenomenon. Every household has siblings who have differences. A gag about bowlers spun from the theme of sibling rivalry is not such a unique occurrence. Having said that,Kikusays he completely understands Abijits dismay. He had told that joke. He felt it was his humour being used on our show. I understand where he comes from. But there is no reason why we would steal his joke when we have so much of a think tank to fall back on. Like I said there are certain happenings and behaviour patterns in our society that are universal. If you run into them in more places than one it doesnt mean someone has stolen your idea. Kikuis honest enough to admit theTRPsin recent episodes of KapilSharmaShow have dipped. But the reason is not the absence of some of my colleagues. Every year during theIPLseason theTRPsof our show falls. Even big films are not released during theIPL. So were not getting big stars to come to our show to promote their films. Kikuadmits he missed his colleaguesSunilGrover,ChandanPrabhakarand AliAsgarwhen theKapilSharma Showturned a 100 episodes old. I do miss them. I wish they had not left. But it is their decision and we must respect that. As far as I am concerned, I discovered an entirely new level of success through my association on Kapils show. Kikuis happy to see stand-up comedians coming into their own. Finally the much-neglected ilk has found its groove. Its good to see stand-up comedians being appreciated. Live performances are not my favourite place to be funny though I was in Dubai and Nagpur recently performing live on stage and enjoying it. I prefer doing my comedy on television.