Akash Bhatnagar (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 11, 2019)

December has clearly become a month of milestones in this celebrity household. Kapil Sharma and Ginni Chatrath tied the knot on December 12 last year in Jalandhar. On Tuesday, December 10, the couple welcomed a baby girl at a SoBo hospital. The actor-comedian, who shared the happy news online, was soon inundated with congratulatory messages.

Incidentally, Kapil’s close friend Rajiev Dhingra, who was associated with his last show, Comedy Nights With Kapil, and also directed him in his home production Firangi, became a father to a baby boy last week in the same hospital. “Our rooms are next to each other. Ginni had a natural delivery, while my wife went through a C-section. Kapil was a bit stressed on Monday night, but everyone is really happy now,” Rajiev says.

Meanwhile, Kapil is all set to return to work. “He was supposed to shoot for an episode of The Kapil Sharma Show with Deepika Padukone on Wednesday and another one with the Good Newwz gang on Thursday. When the production team reached out to him, he assured them that the shoot will go on as per schedule,” a source close to the show informed.

After wrapping up the two episodes, Kapil will shoot for the next episode in the new year. “The team had decided the schedule keeping the due date in mind. So, there are no more episodes planned for this month. The next one will happen only after the first week of January,” the source added.

Kapil Sharma’s co-star Upasna Singh, filmmaker Rajiev Dhingra, ex-colleague Preeti Simoes and comedian Krushna Abhishek on the controversy around his comeback
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 9, 2018)

After standing up star guests like Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan, Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor and a mid-air scuffle with co-star Sunil Grover, Kapil Sharma took a break from his eponymous TV series, The Kapil Sharma Show, to concentrate on his health. “I could not afford to cancel another episode, so I called them (channel Sony) and requested that I wanted to take a break,” he had told Mirror (September 7, 2017) from a treatment facility in Bangalore, where he was undergoing ayurvedic treatment. With the common refrain that blamed his no-shows to ill health and promises that he was on his way to change everything for the better, Kapil had closed the conversation insisting, “Personal equations have never been detrimental to my career, it’s my health that has affected me adversely. If you fall, it’s your fault and nobody else’s.”

On March 25 this year, the actor-comedian returned to the small screen with a new show. However, the much-awaited comeback was soon punctuated by reports of the host standing up Rani Mukerji. On Friday afternoon, Salman Khan’s conviction in the black buck case seemed to have pushed an already stressed out Kapil over the edge, as he took to Twitter to fire a salvo against his and Khan’s detractors for targeting them with negativity instead of focusing on “bigger scams”.

While the acrimonious tweets subsequently vanished, Kapil informed his followers with the last post for the day that his team had deleted the previous tweets but everything he said was straight from the heart. The day ended with the internet blowing up with the recording of a phone conversation between the 37-year-old actor-comedian and a scribe, in which Kapil is heard abusing the latter and accusing them of “ruining his life” by only publishing negative news about him.

Following renewed speculation around Kapil’s health, his close friend Rajiev Dhingra, who was also associated with Comedy Nights With Kapil and went on to direct him in his home production Firangi, claims that Preeti Simoes (Creative Director on Comedy Nights... and The Kapil Sharma Show) and her sister Neeti are responsible for his plight. “Kapil and I come from a small town of Punjab, we are not manipulative like these girls. Preeti is responsible for driving Kapil into depression, she harassed me as well and tried to instigate him against me. As soon as she learnt that he was marrying his girlfriend Ginni (Chatrath), she vowed to destroy him and turn his friends against him. All the controversies in Kapil’s life happened only in the last one year after Preeti vowed to destroy him.”

Dhingra further informs that Kapil and Ginni have been dating since they lived in Jalandhar. “Bharti (Singh) told Preeti about Ginni and she would tell him that he is a star and deserves someone better than Ginni, a small-town girl,” he says.

Rajiev adds that Sunil Grover was also used as a “pawn” towards that goal. “We friends have been trying to help Kapil stay positive. Not only is he unwell, even his mother isn’t keeping well and we are afraid he will harm himself. Preeti forced herself into the show and into his life. He is an emotional man, she is misusing his weakness. She threatened me saying Kapil and I are not from Mumbai and she will get us thrown out of the industry. Now, Kapil feels he has lost everything he earned over the years,” he grouses.

Meanwhile Krushna Abhishek, whose show The Drama Company replaced The Kapil Sharma Show in September last year, refutes Rajiev’s allegations, saying, “I’ve worked with Preeti in The Drama Company but not once has she spoken ill of Kapil. I know both of them well and sometimes I would want to include Kapil in my jokes but Preeti stopped me.” When Mirror contacted Preeti, she kept it short, “Let’s focus on the fact that Kapil should get the best medical help possible. He is also keeping wrong company and should get out of it soon. Contrary to what his friends and family believe, there is no malice from my side. I will pray that he is out of this situation soon.”

Upasna Singh, Kapil’s co-star on Colors’ Comedy Nights… and The Kapil Sharma Show, says, “Kapil has been mentally disturbed for a while now and has other health issues. In such a condition people make mistakes. I feel bad for him, I have worked closely with both Preeti and him and have never heard him abuse anyone. If Kapil was such a bad person would the stars come on his show? He always behaves respectfully with me so I’m shocked by the language in the (phone) recording. Yes, he drinks but that isn’t an excuse for such behaviour.”

Krushna blames the failure of Kapil’s Firangi for the situation. “His film didn’t work, he’s lost a lot of money plus his show Family Time With Kapil didn’t work. I never took his side before but I’m feeling bad for him now with the way everyone is pouncing on him. People should just forgive him and let him be. Yes, he consumes alcohol, but he isn’t into drugs. He should just stop tweeting. And it’s wrong to harass and write negatively about a guy who is dealing with depression. Kapil isn’t a bad guy and all of us love him,” he adds.

Even as the controversy rages on, a source from Sony informed Mirror that Kapil’s new show is not going off-air.

Subhash K Jha (DNA; October 15, 2017)

Kapil Sharma, who is back from rehab and has recovered from exhaustion, is now gearing up for his film release.

He is worried about promoting his home production Firangi, which has him in the lead role. “Everyone promoted their films on my show. But now where will I go?” he asks.

Kapil, is referring to the fact that his popular show — The Kapil Sharma Show — where stars made a beeline to promote their movies has been temporarily discontinued, thereby leaving no space for his film’s promotion, at least none that Kapil would like to use.

One learns that Kapil’s new film Firangi won’t be promoted on the usual channels and shows. Apparently, Kapil will do very selected publicity for the film.

Rajiev Dhingra, director of Firangi, who is also Kapil’s best friend explains, “There is no need for Kapil to go from show-to-show. He is a household name on television. Firangi is not a comedy like his first feature film Kiss Kiss Ko Pyar Karoon. It’s a lighthearted look at the pre-Freedom era, but not a comedy. We are opening on November 24, after the big Diwali releases have settled down.”