Sourav Ghosh, a Kolkata based stand-up comedian found himself in trouble for offending the Marathi manoos with his comments on Chhatrapati Shivaji on his Facebook page. Ghosh had posted a video of his show which had been filmed earlier at the Tuning Fork, Mumbai on February 26.

In the video, Ghosh questions why most places in the city are named after Maharaja Chhatrapati Shivaji, the Maratha Warrior King and his confusion in differentiation between the city’s similarly named airports. Noting that even the train terminal was named after Shivaji, Ghosh quipped “I did not know he was also a travel enthusiast.”

After the video was posted on his page, Ghosh received abusive messages and posts. Ghosh responded to these by cracking jokes on Shivaji, ostensibly in an attempt to annoy his critics. These exchanges escalated, and eventually drew the attention of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Both parties raised a furore over the supposed insults to Maharashtra’s warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Over two months from when the video was published, Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena issued a letter on May 6 to two venues—the Tuning Fork at Khar and the Canvas Laugh Club at Lower Parel to blacklist Ghosh. The Canvas Club is one of the most well-known venues which hosts stand-up comedians.

The letter by the Yuva Sena read, “If the artist is not blacklisted then protests will be carried out in Shiv Sena style.” Shiv Sena is infamous for their style of protesting. They have on previous occasions vandalised venues and frequently resorted to violence.

Yuva Sena said that both the clubs have blacklisted the comedian. While the Canvas Laugh Club confirmed this, Tuning Fork refused to comment.

Varun Sardesai, a core committee member of the Yuva Sena, said “We enjoy stand-up comedy and support it. But we won’t allow anybody to just make fun of Shivaji Maharaj. Today he (Ghosh) has passed comments on Shivaji, tomorrow he will insult martyred soldiers too. People are doing anything under the name of freedom of speech and expression. We won’t allow his shows to be held in Maharashtra.” For the Yuva Sena, the Maratha King was simply a step away from mocking martyred soldiers.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena took the matter further and sent a letter to the Cyber Cell of the Mumbai Police demanding the video be taken down, and lodged an FIR at Khar Police Station in Mumbai against Ghosh.

When contacted, the Police officials refused to disclose any information related to the FIR. The Police asked Newslaundry to come down to Mumbai and would only provide information then. The mobile number of the investigation officer was constantly switched off when we tried contacting the officer.

Akhil Chitre, vice-president, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s Youth Wing, said, “There is offence against Sourav’s video. He’s a comedian, he can say whatever he wants to. However, his comments on social media platforms against Shivaji Maharaj were extremely derogatory.” He further said, “We have warned several venues across the city to blacklist Ghosh from performing. If Ghosh still performs we would have to disrupt the events.”

It seems odd that the Sena’s response to the comic was not simply to boycott him or stop attending his shows but to ensure that he not be able to perform, perhaps to an audience that didn’t find his subject matter as offensive. The incident seems have rattled several comedians. Newslaundry reached out to several stand-up comedians in Mumbai, but not a single one was willing to talk to us on record about the situation.

On May 6, Sourav Ghosh posted an apology on his Facebook page for his comments on Shivaji. The apology read, “These are just jokes. I don’t mean them, nor do I intend to hurt anyone. I know Chattrapati Shivaji was a great king and had done great things and me saying some silly things do not scratch his legacy but I do find it very unfortunate that I had hurt so many people’s feelings.” He also announced that he had cancelled all his other performance dates in the city.

According to sources, Sourav Ghosh is currently in Kolkata and has not replied to our calls and messages.