Hotstar cancels On Air with AIB's third season as comedy group battles sexual harrassment charges againsts its members

In wake of the recent developments that struck comedy collective All India Bakchod (AIB), digital entertainment platform Hotstar announced its decision on Monday to cancel production of the group’s online show ‘On Air with AIB’. In a statement on Twitter, Hotstar revealed that the step to cancel production of the third season of the show was taken “in light of the recent events involving AIB”. “We are deeply concerned by these developments, which run contrary to our values as a responsible platform, and will not stand by anything that compromises the respect or safety of women,” Hotstar said in the statement.

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— JioHotstar (@JioHotstar) October 8, 2018

The action comes days after a Twitter user accused writer-actor Utsav Chakraborty , once associated with AIB, of sending sexually explicit messages to her and several other women. The comedy group also announced on Monday that its founders Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba are distancing themselves from the comedy group, which has been battling allegations of sexual harassment against its members. While Bhat has come under attack for his inaction in the complaints against writer-comedian Utsav Chakraborty, Khamba has been directly accused of sexual misconduct. Vidhi Jotwani, HR head at AIB, said in a statement. “Truthfully, we don’t know what this means for the future of AIB or whether there is one. In the interim, Ashish Shakya, Rohan Joshi and other senior team members will work towards being able to answer that question over the next several months,” she said. Bhat, the statement added, will not be involved with the day-to-day functioning of the company. “We have been closely monitoring the sequence of events on social media around the allegations against AIB and also against our co-founder and CEO, Tanmay Bhat. We cannot overlook Tanmay’s role and in light of this, he will be stepping away from his association with AIB until further notice. Khamba, who has been accused by a woman of misconduct, issued a separate statement denying “any violation of consent”. He will be on leave till the company has more clarity on the matter.

With inputs from PTI