All India Bakchod

All India Bakchod
Personal information
Occupation	Comedian
Website	Official Website
YouTube information
Pseudonym	AIB
Channel	AllIndiaBakchod
Years active	2013 - present
Subscribers	2.358 million subscribers (July 2017)
Total views	234,311,672 views (May 2017)
Play buttons 100,000 subscribers 1,000,000 subscribers

All India Bakchod usually abbreviated and referred to as AIB is an Indian comedy group. The group was initially founded by Gursimran Khamba and Tanmay Bhat and was later joined by Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya. All four members are equal owners of the group. The group maintains a YouTube channel^[1] that shows their comedy sketches and parodies on topics such as politics, society, and the Hindi film industry, and much of their reputation was founded on their online presence.^[2] Initially, the group produced podcasts, before using YouTube in 2013 as a medium to share their comedic work.^[2] Joshi had noted that the reason for their use of YouTube was that they simply did not have funds for advertisements and other promotional materials, and instead relied upon social media to promote their work.^[3]

Current work

As of March 2015, the group has amassed over 100 million views on their videos^[2] and has 2 million subscribers on YouTube. The group has multiple employees for script writing, brand consulting, and coordinating academic and corporate workshops.^[4] In December 2014, AIB organized a roast show, All India Bakchod Knockout Championship featuring Karan Johar as the host with Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor as subjects of the roast.^[5][6] The event is claimed to have raised over 40 lakh rupees for charity organisations such as Being Human and Vogue Empower, which works for women empowerment.^[7] They also perform regular stand-up acts across the globe.

AIB also has an advertisement wing called Vigyapanti, which was started in early October 2015.^[8] It was kicked off by the release of an online video titled "Creep Qawwali", which was an advertisement for the start-up dating portal, Truly Madly.^[9]

AIB started a news comedy series called On Air With AIB on the Star Network in October 2015. The 20-episode show (10 in English, 10 in Hindi) was released on Hotstar first, followed by weekend airing on STAR World India and Star Plus.^[10]

AIB also conducts screenwriting workshops under the banner AIB First Draft.

On Air with AIB

On Air with AIB is a typical news comedy show that aims to find comedy in tragedy. Hosted by Rohan Joshi, Tanmay Bhat, Ashish Shakya and Gursimran Khamba, the show featured interviews, sketches and an examination of systemic issues that the country faces.^[11] The show has been co-hosted and written by Zakir Khan.^[12]

Season 2 of On Air with AIB is released only on Hotstar.

Season 2 started on 6 March 2017.

Politics

AIB has taken often controversial stances on many liberal issues.

In 2013, they uploaded a satirical video called Rape: It's Your Fault, starring Kalki Koechlin and Juhi Pandu. The video went viral with over 5 million views, and started conversations about the way that rape victims in India are treated in the media and by law enforcement.^[13]

AIB has been highly critical of Facebook's Free Basics program, on the grounds that it violates net neutrality. In 2015 the group made three videos, all of which went viral, published on YouTube, urging people to write to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to keep India's internet neutral towards contents and content providers and providing a substantial boost to the pro-net neutrality SaveTheInternet.in campaign. Later TRAI supported net neutrality and ruled against differential data pricing based on content which resulted in ending zero-rating platforms in India including Free Basics and Airtel Zero.^[14][15][16]

In 2016, they uploaded a satirical video called The Demonetisation Circus based on the Modi government's decision to demonetise banknotes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000. The video exposed the problems faced by the common public and the attitude of citizens towards their brethren in a satirical manner.

Controversy

Akhilesh Tiwari, president of Brahman Ekta Sanstha in Mumbai, filed a written complaint at Sakinaka police station on 2 February 2015 for alleged use of "filthy and abusive language" in the AIB Knockout. The Mumbai police initiated an inquiry into this complaint against the participants, ranging from Bollywood film-maker Karan Johar to actors Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. An edited video of the event was uploaded on YouTube on 28 January 2015, covering the event that was held on December 28.^[17] The government of Maharashtra ordered an inquiry against event organizers and participants.^[18]

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan criticized the group's roast event. He said ‘I completely believe in freedom of speech but as creative persons we have to understand that we all have a certain responsibility towards society.’^[19] In response Anurag Kashyap posted a link on his Facebook page showing Khan defending the DK Bose song from the movie Delhi Belly, a film that Khan produced. Khan had said, "I have already informed my audiences that it is an adult film. Please do not go with your kids and those who have a problem with this kind of language shouldn't come either. I try my best to inform the audiences before-hand. Then they can decide themselves. If the audience is adult, they can decide themselves. So from my end I do all these things for my fans."^[20] AIB had provided a statutory warning at the beginning of the video describing the 18+ offensive nature of the content of the video. To ensure that people get the message, they made their ‘roast master’ Karan Johar repeat the warning.

The Royal Turds

The Royal Turds is a comedic awards ceremony that recognizes the worst of the Hindi film industry. It is presented by All India Bakchod, in collaboration with other stand-up comedians such as Abish Mathew. The event is organized and promoted by OML and NH7, respectively. The ceremony is conducted in a stand-up comedy format, and its variations are recreated by the group in several shows at the same or different locations, sometimes even in other Indian cities. The statuette is a golden mug, depicting the article that is generally used by people of the region to clean up after defecation. Selected clips of the event are published on YouTube, although no clip has been published since the Royal Turds 2013.

See also

• The Viral Fever
• East India Comedy

References