Tamil director Atlee was recently on an episode of Netflix's The Great Indian Kapil Show, which is the OTT version of the famous Hindi comedy talk show with host Kapil Sharma. Producer Atlee was there to promote his Theri Hindi remake Baby John, with actors Varun Dhawan, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi and film's director Kalees. 

A clip from the show was uploaded to the X platform by a Salman Khan fan on Sunday morning, claiming that Kapil Sharma 'insulted' director Atlee's looks. By Sunday evening, singer-dubbing artiste-X activist Chinmayi Sripada, who ironically is well versed in both the Hindi and English language, had quoted this X post, mindlessly insinuating to her 1 million followers, that Kapil was taking a 'crass', 'racist' jibe at Atlee's dark skin colour (Kapil Sharma himself is an Indian albeit from North India, with a brown skin colour). 

"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." - Chinmayi Sripada on December 15, 2024

On Monday when the issue had snowballed into an "attack on looks", MovieCrow had not only translated Kapil Sharma's question to Atlee, but also explained the context behind the same to its readers. 

Hindi comedy show host #KapilSharma misinterpreted over question to Tamil director #Atlee. What went down at Netflix's #TheGreatIndianKapilShow during #BabyJohn's OTT leg of promotions:https://t.co/dfIXItcoma

— MovieCrow (@MovieCrow) December 16, 2024

Now Kapil Sharma himself has responded to the controversy, and many X users have commented on his post spoon-feeding to those who missed the point by a mile.  

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). https://t.co/PdsxTo8xjg

— Kapil Sharma (@KapilSharmaK9) December 17, 2024

So sometime he might have come across a situation where the visuals of Atlee in someone's mind would be of an elderly person , different from his actual physical appearance i.e. of a young guy.

— Ankur Banka (@ca_banka) December 17, 2024

Kyuki itna young lagta hai fir bhi South me one of the greats ban chuka hai. Baaki saare bade directors aged hai.

— 𝑷𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒚𝒂𝒌𝒔𝒉 (@_Pratyaksh_) December 17, 2024

By "where is Atlee", he means people usually try to find somebody who is older and looks more experienced. Doesn't mean colour. He clearly used the term "young". Trying to make everybody a racist is not the solution.

— Abhinav (@Abhi2604N) December 17, 2024

English skill is bad* ... is what I meant 😂

— iKya Astro IN (@iKya_Astro_IN) December 17, 2024

@elonmusk Sir kindly introduce a system or feature to stop any revenue for creators who engage in spreading misinformation or hate by clipping videos out of context. I am sure for your team it's achievable and who knows even other platforms might follow suit

— Mudit Das (@dasmmd) December 17, 2024

And I would also say that Atlee has misunderstood the question of Kapil. He never pointed about appearance. He meant to say he has become a gr8 director and producer.

— Ankur Banka (@ca_banka) December 17, 2024

The truth . It's disappointing how ignorant people are they don't understand he was talking about Atlee's age and not appearance and if people think it's about appearance then they're the ones with screwed up thinking .

— Vijeta Singh (@jollyvijju) December 17, 2024

V must keep in mind dat maybe Kapil also realised dat Atlee had misunderstood n so Kapil took it very POLITELY n where Kapil is right V should all appreciate him
Conversational miscommunications r common n should b taken positively in their stride
I feel Kapil WOUND UP POLITELY👍🏽

— Sanjay Ernest Shackleton|Fortitudine Vincimus|🌎✍️ (@fortitudnvncmus) December 17, 2024

Funny how many are ignoring this right here.. people just love to jump the gun, accuse and spread hate.. society is such these days

— iPhailot (@iPhailot) December 17, 2024

I think I had same feeling when I saw AR mrugodas too 😂 he looks too little for his name and movies. Atlee also looks very rooted unlike his movies which are over the top and massy.

— SB (@shashankbannu) December 17, 2024