Mumbai club in soup over AIB show

Mumbai: The controversy over the comedy show – AIB Roast – just refuses to die down. The BJP has asked the BMC to cancel the lease deed of the National Sports Club of India (NSCI), where the event was staged at Worli.

In a letter written to the civic chief, BJP secretary Vivekanand Gupta demanded that the BMC should take over the ground from the NSCI as it violated the lease deed and make it open for the use of general public.

“By granting permission to AIB to hold such an offensive programme, which is also a commercial activity, the NSCI has violated the lease deed conditions. They must have charged heavy fees to the organisers of AIB and earned profit on the land that belongs to the BMC. Therefore, the lease deed of NSCI should be cancelled,” said Mr Gupta.

Read: AIB Roast: Pune police file FIR against Ranveer, Karan, Deepika

The AIB show invited trouble for use of expletives and sexually explicit jokes. It evoked widespread protests and the state government has also ordered a probe into the issue.

Along with the show, the NSCI has also drawn flak for staging the show at its Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel  Stadium at Worli. Mr Gupta said the BMC has leased the land to the club only for sporting activities and no business, trade or commercial events are allowed there. There were protests last year too when the NSCI decided to lease the SVP stadium to an event management firm.

When asked, civic chief Sitaram Kunte admitted receiving a complaint against the NSCI. “We have sought report from the municipal authorities concerned in this regard and will take a decision accordingly,” he said.

Neither the officials of NSCI nor the event management firm were available for comments, despite repeated attempts.