New Delhi: Hours after stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra wrote an open letter to ticketing platform BookMyShow over the reported delisting of him, the firm has issued an official statement on the matter on Monday, ending their long silence into it.
The recent reports have circulated that the Mumbai-based online ticketing portal delisted Kamra as an artist and removed all content related to him. This came in the wake of Kamra’s stand-up act performed in February at The Habitat in Khar, Mumbai. The video of the whole act titled ‘Naya Bharat’ was uploaded on the artist’s official YouTube channel on March 23.
The video sparked a massive controversy as Shiv Sena workers vandalised the venue where the act was performed. Shiv Sena’s Yuva Sena General Secretary Rahool Kanal, who was involved in the vandalism act, wrote to BookMyShow CEO Ashish Hemrajani to remove Kamra from their platform. Kanal later thanked Hemrajani for hearing his request, and called it as cleaning the platform.
BookMyShow issues statement on Kamra matter
After Kamra wrote an open letter to BookMyShow on Monday, urging them either not to delist him or provide him the data (contact information) generated through his shows on the platform (about his audience). The ticketing company issued a statement, where they mentioned that the facts on their part have been misrepresented.
“BookMyShow is a platform to facilitate the sale of tickets and operates the business with neutrality and in compliance with the applicable laws of India. Facts on our role have been misrepresented in the public domain. Our role is to provide a platform for ticket sales of live shows and it is the decision of the organiser or the venue to list or delist their shows,” the statement read.
“The content of each performance is solely at the discretion of the performer or the organiser (as the case may be) and does not bear any representation of our views. We work with all venues and promoters on mutually agreed upon commercials to provide our ticketing service, as would be the case with any business. We do not restrict any artist from selling their show on their own website, should they choose to do so,” it further read.
