Twinkle Khanna Tweets About The Akshay Kumar - Mallika Dua Controversy!

Author and film producer Twinkle Khanna has come out in support of her actor husband Akshay Kumar amid the controversy with comedian Mallika Dua. Twinkle has said that she would like to be kept out of the conversation but not without giving her opinion on the matter.

In a short post on Twitter, Twinkle suggested that people take comedy in the right context. “I would like to address the controversy on the sets of ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’. The show has a bell which the judges ring after a contestant’s exceptional performance and Dua went forward to ring the bell, Kumar said, ‘Mallika ji aap bell bajao main aap ko bajata hun’,” Twinkle wrote. “A pun on the words and actions related to ringing the bell. It’s a colloquial phrase that both men and women use -- for instance, ‘I am going to bajao him/her’ or ‘I got bajaoed’, all without sexist connotations,” she added.

“Vinod Dua, Maliika Dua’s father, had written a post -- it’s been taken down now - stating, ‘I am going to screw this cretin Akshay Kumar’. Should Mr Dua’s statement also be taken literally or interpreted in context? Words, especially humour has to be seen in its right context,” she wrote.

Twinkle closed her argument by advocating for ‘freedom in comedy’. “I have always stood up for the freedom within comedy including defending AIB’s (All India Bakchod’s) infamous roasts on numerous occasions in the past and that is my stance even today, so kindly stop tagging me in this debate,” she said.

The controversy broke when Mallika and Zakir Hussain were fired from The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, which also stars Akshay as a judge, citing low TRPs. A few weeks later, Mallika shared an unaired video of the show on Twitter in which Akshay tells her ‘Aap ghanti bajaiye, main apki bajata hu (You ring the bell and I shall bang you).’ She found the comment to be sexist. Mallika’s father, former journalist Vinod Dua, too, took to Twitter to vent against Akshay.

Akshay has not responded to the controversy yet.