Atlee had a rather dignified response to a question posed by Kapil Sharma amid the former’s Baby John promotions with Varun Dhawan and Keerthy Suresh
Atlee is currently inching closer to the release of his much-hyped production venture, Baby John, starring Varun Dhawan in the lead. Officially an adaptation of Thalapathy Vijay’s Theri (2016), directed by Atlee himself, there’s a lot riding on the project considering it is the director’s first Bollywood release post the record-smashing Jawan (2023), one half of Shah Rukh Khan’s two-part silver screen comeback last year. It goes without saying that final leg of promotions for the film is going on in full swing.
For the latest episode then, of The Great Indian Kapil Show, hosted by Kapil Sharma, the Baby John team — represented by Varun, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi and Atlee — marked their presence. A certain moment from the now free-to-stream episode has been garnering attention on the internet, presumably for the wrong reasons. In a long and winding question, potentially with a comic undertone to it, Kapil asked Atlee a question which implied how his appearance doesn’t really match up to his mammoth stature.
Atlee’s dignified response to the same, is winning the internet. “In a way I understood your question, I’ll try to answer (it). I am very thankful to AR Murugadoss because he produced my first film…He didn’t see how I’m looking, whether I’m capable of it or not, but he loved my narration. I think world should see that. By appearance we should not judge, by heart you have to judge”, he articulated.
https://embed.reddit.com/r/BollyBlindsNGossip/comments/1hfeshg/why_do_people_continue_to_ask_disrespectful/?embed=true&ref_source=embed&ref=share&utm_medium=widgets&utm_source=embedv2&utm_term=23&utm_name=post_embed&embed_host_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hindustantimes.com%2Fhtcity%2Fcinema%2Fatlee-responds-to-kapil-sharma-joke-on-his-appearance-amid-baby-john-promotions-with-varun-dhawan-keerthy-suresh-101734352063827.html
While Atlee is being showered with praise for directly answering the question as opposed to playing along with the humorous undertone, the internet doesn’t feel like it’s in a mood to be very kind to Kapil, for the tone of the question posed.
Comments reflecting this read: “That was soo rude…..He handled it perfectly”, “Because colorism is so normalized in South Asia, disrespecting someone for their skin color is often seen as funny or deserving” and “Kudos to Atlee for giving it back and making it sound wrong from Kapil’s end”.
There were some however, who believed Kapil’s question was taken out of context. Some takes in his defense read, “Kapil clearly says ‘you are so young but a big director already’. It was directed at that, not his looks”, “he wasn’t talking about man’s body complexion , he was joking like you don’t look like…A director stereotype…Only pseudo liberals are making a thing out of nothing” and “He said nothing about color or appearance- stop being a pados wali aunty”.
Meanwhile, Baby John will be hitting theatres on this christmas.
