Jim Sarbh, Bollywood actor who rose to fame after Padmaavat, made headlines recently but for all the wrong reasons. Jim Sarbh was caught in a controversy after a video of him making rape jokes went viral. Actress Kangana Ranaut was also present with the actor and she cracked up at the joke. Kangana, who has claimed to be a feminist previously, was also slammed by netizens on the issue.
Both the actors were at the after party of the Cannes Film Festival when the incident took place. In the clip, Jim Sarbh could be heard saying, “I’d rather be raped by 12 prostitutes than touch alcohol and the Punjabi says ‘Me too’, I didn’t know that was an option.” As Jim ends his joke, Kangana could be spotted cracking up. The video has surfaced on the internet.
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Jim Sarbh and Kangana Ranaut had to face a major backlash. Here is how the Twitterati reacted.
Here goes 2 Mindless Bollytards #JimSarbh who thinks getting Raped is better than drinking alcohol, made joke out of a heinous crime like Rape and #KanganaRanaut laughed it off https://t.co/IVwErfX4Y8
Rape joke from #JimSarbh at Cannes? Don’t expect anything better from him.The man has the arrogance of Brando and the cockiness of James Dean.But #Kangana laughing at the rape joke? Tch tch.
Jim Sarbh is cancelled.
One. He made a hideous joke and included a vital thing called ‘Rape’
Two. he included ‘prostitute’ in that “I would rather be raped by 12 prostitutes…” are you freaking kidding me ? you just stated that they are as equal as Rapists ?
Go get a life man
Dear Jim Sarbh/ Kangana Ranaut
Rape jokes are not funny. Rape is NOT a joke. If you tell or laugh at jokes about rape you are a part of the problem. https://t.co/Pk5bSB9zCr
After all the slamming on social media, actor Jim Sarbh spoke to Bollywood Life and expressed his opinion. “First of all, I understand the environment we live in just now, in light of recent events, but more frankly, in light of events going on since the beginning of human consciousness, rape is a deadly serious issue. I treat it as such. The joke that I made is about a Priest blowing a very casual question completely out of proportion, condemning alcohol, prostitutes, and rape all simultaneously. The Punjabi (or whichever ethnicity, depending on the audience) responds to the situation by consenting to it and expressing his sexual proclivities. I personally do not find it to be about a desire to rape, or to inflict sexual violence upon another, but a subversive and comedic response to an extremely volatile sentence,” Jim said.
He grew up in India. He rejected England. He spoke Hindi better than any Englishman around him. Jim Corbett was no ordinary colonial figure, and Jim Sarbh knows it. Now he wants to bring that story to the screen, and he is not hiding it.
She watched her co-star's daughters play on a film set with nowhere to go. That moment made Kangana Ranaut ask a question India's workplaces have never had a good answer to.
She had just made her Bollywood debut. Her parents watched the film. And instead of talking about her performance, they asked who would handle the society's questions.