Filmmaker Atlee, who is busy with the promotions of Varun Dhawan-starrer Baby John, appeared on The Great Indian Kapil Show on Saturday. While fans found the episode entertaining, a section of social media users felt that host Kapil Sharma tried to insult Atlee for his looks. Videos of that particular segment have been doing the rounds on social media and netizens have expressed their disappointment. Singer Chinmayi Sripaada also slammed Kapil for his 'crass and racist' jibe.
Reacting to a clip from the episode, Chinmay wrote on X, "Will they never stop these crass and racist jibes at his skin color in the name of ‘comedy'? Someone with the amount of influence and clout like Kapil Sharma saying something like this is disappointing and unfortunately, not surprising."
Kapil Sharma's controversial comment
While interacting with Atlee during the episode, Kapil asked him, "Has it ever happened that you went to meet a star and they didn't recognise you? Have they asked where is Atlee?"
While Atlee looked a bit taken aback by the question at first, he went on to give a befitting reply. He said, "Sir, in a way I understood your question. I'll try to answer. I am very thankful to AR Murugadoss sir because he produced my first film. He asked for the script, but he didn't see how I am looking and whether I am capable of it or not, but he loved my narration."
"World should see that. We should not judge by appearance, we should judge by the heart," Atlee added.
Soon after the episode was released, netizens slammed Kapil for the question and for trying to put down the filmmaker.
Meanwhile, Atlee is set to deliver his second venture in Bollywood, Baby John, after stepping a firm foot in the Hindi film industry with Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan in 2023.
Baby John is scheduled to release on December 25. Also starring Keerthy Suresh, Jackie Shroff and Wamiqa Gabbi, the film is an adaptation of Atlee's own Tamil film, Theri, which starred Thalapathy Vijay.
