Days after Kapil Sharma courted controversy for allegedly poking fun at filmmaker Atlee's skin colour, the stand-up comic and host on Tuesday defended his comments and requested people to not spread hate on social media.
Several X users, including singer Chinmayi Sripaada, criticised the comic calling his remarks "crass and racist".
Atlee appeared on the Saturday episode of Sharma's "The Great Indian Kapil Show" on Netflix along with the team of his upcoming film production "Baby John" starring Varun Dhawan.
While many on social media praised Atlee for his grace, others were not amused.
On Tuesday, Sharma replied to one of the posts on X and asked the user where he made a comment on Atlee's looks in the now viral video.
"Dear sir, can you pls explain me where n when I talked about looks in this video ? pls don't spread hate on social media thank you. (guys watch n decide by yourself, don't follow any body's tweet like a sheep)" he wrote.
In a video clip from the show circulating on social media, Sharma asks Atlee: "You're so young and you have become such a big producer-director. Has it ever happened that you went to meet a star and they didn't realise that you are Atlee, do they ask 'Where is Atlee?'"
To this question, the director -- known for directing films such as Vijay-starrers "Theri", "Bigil", and "Jawan" featuring Shah Rukh Khan -- simply replied that the world should value one's heart more than their appearance.
"In a way, I understood your question. I'll try to answer. I'm actually very thankful to AR Murugadoss sir because he produced my first film. He asked for a script, but didn't see how I looked or whether I'm capable of it or not. But, he loved my narration. I think the world should see that. We should not judge by appearance. You have to judge by your heart," Atlee had said.
Social media platforms continue to be abuzz about Atlee's reply to Sharma.
"Many people will say that this is a comedy show, just take it as it is, don't feel bad & so on....But this is not right!! trying to insult a person on the basis of his looks. Just bcz it is comedy, making racist comment is not right (sic)" wrote one.
Will they never stop these crass and racist jibes at his skin color in the name of 'comedy', asked singer Chinmayi.
"Someone with the amount of influence and clout like Kapil Sharma saying something like this is disappointing and unfortunately, not surprising," she added.
"Kapil pokes fun at Atlee's appearance, but the director delivers a mic-drop moment: "Judge by heart, not by looks," wrote another X user.
Another said Sharma's show will "collapse" if he stops using body-shaming, skin-colour-shaming and racist barbs.
"Tragedy is not Kapil or the Channel, but the society which relishes this nonsense," he added.
