Indian influencer Kusha Kapila says roast about divorce ‘straight up dehumanised’ her

An Indian influencer and actor who appeared on a comedian’s roast said she felt “straight up dehumanised” after jokes about her body and her recent divorce.

Kusha Kapila sat through comedian Ashish Solanki’s Pretty Good Roast Show, which was shot in January and released a month ago on YouTube. The show saw Kapila joined by a panel of standup comedians including Samay Raina, who made some of the jokes about Kapila.

After the episode was released, fans questioned Kapila’s decision to sit through the roast and accused her of allowing these jokes to be made at her expense for money.

On the episode, Raina opened the segment on Kapila by calling her a “golddigger”, adding that he was “talking based on size”. Some of the comedians also took a dig at her recent weight loss.

Raina then went on to make jokes about her divorce, referring to Kapila’s dog, which she shares with her husband.

Kapila got married to influencer Zorawar Ahluwalia in 2017, and announced their separation in June 2023.

Raina said, “Kusha ke paas ek kutiya bhi hai, jo aadha time Kusha ke paas rehti hai aur baaki time khush rehti hai. De de na, Zorawar ko kutiya. Uski life mein koi kutiya toh ho.” [Kusha has a female dog, who is with Kusha half the time, and during the other half remains happy. Just give the dog to Zorawar. Let him have at least one dog in his life.]

The segment continued, but with most of what Raina said muted, or bleeped out, with a disclaimer that said “Some jokes had to be removed because we were not ready for them”.

In a statement posted on YouTube, Kapila addressed the “shockingly unkind” jokes, saying she agreed to the roast because the host was a friend and she wasn’t aware what would be said.

“A recent roast I was a part of has led a lot of my female and queer followers to question why did I sit through something that could have been completely avoided and WITH GOOD REASON.

“Here are my two cents: it was done in good faith and for a friend. Nobody has been paid (neither comics nor guests) for it so the argument that people are ‘being paid big fat cheques to hear their insults’ is baseless.

“Jokes weren’t shared beforehand (as it’s done in all roast formats in the West) so I had no idea what was in store for me. Maybe I should have asked for a script and known better but since friends were involved I didn’t.

“While I endured some of the really raspy jokes in front of a live audience and technicians, I absolutely was not okay with it playing for millions of people since some jokes straight-up dehumanised me. It was shockingly unkind.

“This has been a huge learning for me too since over the course of the last six months during negotiations, I have been told that I deserve these jokes and that as a divorced woman, I should have seen this coming. Maybe I should have and maybe silence on this topic is seen as cowardice but it’s mostly choosing peace over endless discourse that will likely villainise women.

“Simultaneously, when you don’t speak, people also choose to believe whatever they want to. So this is me clearing the air as much as I can and advising women artists to have strict riders in place.”