We are barely a cottage industry

It took one comment by a writer and comic on comedian Utsav Chakraborty's tweet on sexual harassment to open a can of worms, and before one knew it, the joke was on the stand-up community. Since then, several comedians have been implicated in the #MeToo movement, some of whom have offered apologies, some have put up point-by-point rebuttals of allegations made by anonymous accounts that seem to reek of ulterior motives, some have stepped down from their respective positions, and some have decided to lie low.

Barring a few exceptions, no big names from comedy have performed in Mumbai since revelations started pouring on social media, which, along with Tanushree Dutta's allegations, led to the calling out of names from many other fields including journalism, film and the arts.

In a field where there is no clear definition of who the employer is, what constitutes the workplace, and where - with the exception of collectives like AIB and East India Comedy - artistes function independently, how can guidelines against sexual harassment like those formulated by the Vishakha Committee be enforced? Is a union or governing body of comedians even feasible?

Many questions, few answers
These are questions that an informal collective of stakeholders in the comedy scene have been hoping to address since the beginning of this year, even before #MeToo gathered steam. "In January, Aditi Mittal and Varun Grover had first taken the initiative to organise a complaints committee. Two weeks ago, my husband [writer and comedian] Adhiraj Singh and a bunch of comedians organised a meeting at the Cuckoo Club to set up a committee of sorts. There were Supreme Court lawyers, a person from a non-comedy background, and even a counsellor in attendance," says Daribha Lyndem, deputy commissioner of customs with the Indian Revenue Service and stand-up comedian.

Daribha Lyndem

With the larger aim of making stand-up a safe environment for artistes, the committee is working towards formalising guidelines for artistes, venue owners and promoters. "The idea is to set a precedent so such incidents don't recur. But if they do, there should be a mechanism for recourse. We need a system that gives victims closure," says Sudeip Nair, co-founder, The Hive and The Cuckoo Club, one of the earliest comedy venues in the country.

Sudeip Nair

Lyndem, however, points out that out of the nearly 200 comedians in the city, barely 50 showed up at the meetings held in the last few weeks. "These included Jeeya Sethi, Balraj Ghai and Abish Mathew. With the exception of Mathew, there were no big names present - men or women. Of course, they had their reasons, but there's always an excuse to not do the right thing. What is frustrating to see is this performative woke-ness. You will have people who'd prefer to do a corporate show that mints '50,000 and talk of sexual harassment rather than spend an hour to help form a committee on the same," she rues.

Aishwarya Mohanraj

And then there are concerns over the limitations such bodies have, too. "There is a need for a formal system but you see these things happening in organised sectors as well. Stand-up comedy is an individual art. It is difficult to be bound to an organisation," says Aishwarya Mohanraj, a contestant on Comicstaan, who has also written for shows like Son of Abish and On Air with AIB.

Besides, it is the fluid nature of the field and the freedom that comes with it that attracts many to it in the first place. "I didn't leave my job to get into more bureaucracy," says Punit Pania, founder of Chalta Hai Comedy, adding, "There is no actors' guild kind of a body that governs us, nor is there any other kind of trade representation. Also, we are very small to be even called an industry. Stand-up in India is barely seven to 10 years old. And while there are no numbers available, if there is some way of digging up the turnover, you will see that we are barely a cottage industry."

AIB, which has an HR department, when requested to connect us with their HR personnel, said that following accusations, they have given a statement (Tanmay Bhat has stepped away from his association with AIB, while Gursimran Khamba has been sent on temporary leave), and any further statement will be released directly on their official platforms.

Questions sent to OML, an artiste management agency that handles several big-ticket comedians in Mumbai, on their response to the revelations and their association with names implicated in the movement, didn't receive any response.

A learning curve for all
One of the consequences that have emerged from the movement is a greater sensitisation of the men in the community. But Pania believes that there still is a lot of room, and for that to happen, comedy could do with some more women stand-up artistes. "We need to help more women join and feel safe in stand-up. There are so few of them right now that you have just one in a line-up featuring seven or eight guys. And we don't even notice it because that's the norm," he explains. This skewed ratio translates into the general attitude of venues to women artistes, too. "Out of the 50-odd shows happening in Mumbai in a week, only eight to 10 take place in properly defined clubs. The rest are in cafés and bars, where artistes have to sit among the audience. That itself is keeping many girls from even trying their hand at comedy," says Pania.

Kunal Vijayakar

"I have heard of women having to dress down because they get hit on. This isn't my full-time job and I can't even imagine doing this full time," says Lyndem.

The future
While several comedy venues have decided not to include comedians who have been called out on their line-ups for now, what happens to allegations that remain in the sphere of social media? "It is the venue's prerogative to understand the general sentiment, and to see if the victim or the implicated has had closure before going ahead," says Nair.

An industry insider also points to the fact that the lucrative field of comedy, which has made several 20-somethings famous, is riding on power and ego trips. And for a greater sense of responsibility to seep in, artistes will need to come to terms with handling this power.

Television host and comedian Kunal Vijayakar paints the bigger picture, when he says that most of these cases are not as much about sexual perversion as they are about power games. He agrees with Pania when he says that comedy cannot be called an industry. "While in Bollywood sexual harassment is like a rampant disease, comedy is dependent on event managers and corporates. And both steer clear from working with tarnished names," he says, pointing to the fact that while the competent artistes will thrive, the field dynamics will take care of the rest. "The one thing that has emerged from the movement is that men will be very very wary of wronging women and that will definitely help."

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