Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, once again in trouble for his brand of humour, could well be controversy's favourite child. On Monday, the comic was at the centre of a massive political storm in Maharashtra for his comments seen as an attempt to defame deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The 36-year-old pops up in the headlines every now and then, each time for something he has said in his shows or on social media. The issues have ranged from several airlines banning him from flying for heckling a TV news anchor to facing contempt of court for his comments on the judiciary.
Today, too, news cycles were dominated by Kamra, who has reportedly left the state after the row that saw Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis asking him for an apology, opposition leader Uddhav Thackeray coming to his defence and the venue of his show being vandalised by members of the Shiv Sena (Shinde).
Kamra has 2.5 million followers on X, one million followers on Instagram and 2.32 million on his YouTube channel. As the row escalated, he posted a photograph on Sunday night of himself with a copy of the Constitution of India and captioned it, "The only way forward..."
He grew up in Mumbai and worked at ad company Corcoise Films as a production assistant for six years often balancing his day job with his stand-up shows that were initially focused on regular issues faced by common people.
In 2017, he grabbed attention with his first stand-up comedy on YouTube where he poked fun at the government for invoking the Army and patriotism when criticised for its policies.
Titled Patriotism & the Government, the video has 18 million views.
The same year, he started a YouTube show titled Shut Up Ya Kunal where he would interview personalities from across the spectrum.
The guest list was eclectic, including Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tejaswi Surya, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, Congress' Sachin Pilot as well as lyricist Javed Akhtar and journalist Ravish Kumar.
The questions were no-holds barred with the interviews inserted with memes, photographs and funny videos to draw laughter. The show was a hit but not without its share of controversies.
In 2020, he heckled TV anchor Arnab Goswami aboard a Mumbai-Lucknow IndiGo flight. The video became viral and led IndiGo to suspend Kamra from flying with it for six months. Air India and SpiceJet put him on a no-fly list until further notice.
Kamra found himself at the centre of another scandal that year when he mocked then Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde on social media after Goswami was given an interim bail in a 2018 abetment to suicide case.
The post attracted a contempt case against Kamra.
An undeterred Kamra made another remark against the Supreme Court, which led to a petition being filed against the comedian in the already pending contempt of court case.
In the same year, Kamra kicked up another controversy by sharing a morphed video of a child singing for Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Germany.
The child sang Hey Janmabhoomi Bharat but it was replaced with the famous Peepli Live song Mehengayi daayan khaaye jaat hai.
The child's NRI father called out Kamra for dragging his child into his politics.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) took cognisance of the incident and asked Twitter (now X) and the Delhi police to take down the tweet.
Kamra later deleted his tweet.
In 2022, Kamra wrote to the Vishva Hindu Parishad asking it to denounce Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse to prove that the outfit is pro-Hindu and anti-terrorism.
The comedian said he was ready to give a test to prove his relationship with god but he also wanted to test the organisation whether they were "truly the children of India".
This was after Kamra's Gurugram show was cancelled following threats by Bajrang Dal and VHP to disrupt the event.
And just last year, Kamra attracted criticism for his jokes on Bollywood superstar Salman Khan for taking a jibe on the 1999 black buck hunting case and 2002 hit and run case. There were reports that Salman was planning a defamation suit against the comedian.
Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has also been a frequent target of his jokes.
Kamra brought him up again in his new show. In the video of the show before a live audience recently, he can be seen modifying the song Bholi Si Surat -- from the film Dil To Pagal Hai -- to mock Shinde's political career.
The video has 1.5 million views and counting.
It led to the auditorium of the Hotel Unicontinental, which houses Habitat Studio where the show was held, being ransacked on Sunday night.
Twelve workers of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena. The police also registered a case against 40 Shiv Sena workers for vandalising the Habitat studio in Khar area.
The performance and event venue said it was shutting down.
In an Instagram post on Monday, the studio said, "We are shutting down till we figure out the best way to provide a platform for free expression without putting ourselves and our property in jeopardy. We invite all artists, audience and stakeholders to discuss and share their views free and request your guidance so that we also respect the performers rights."
In a previous post on Monday, Habitat Studio issued an apology to "all those hurt by this video".
"The Habitat is not involved in the making of the recent video of Kunal Kamra and it does not endorse the views expressed by it," it said.
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