The Great Indian Kapil Show is the 2024 OTT version of the famous comedy talk show with host Kapil Sharma, and recently team Baby John was on it to promote their December 25 release. A clip from the show where Kapil and Baby John producer Atlee are in conversation, has created a furore on the Tamil side of social media platforms. 

Atlee is a well known director in Kollywood, and Baby John is the official remake of his hit Tamil film Theri (2016). Prior to Baby John Atlee had made his Bollywood debut with the Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone starrer Jawan (2023). Reflecting on how much Atlee has achieved as a filmmaker at such an young age, host Kapil Sharma asked the filmmaker,

"Atlee Sir actually you are so young I mean, and you have become such a big producer-director. Has it ever happened to you that you've gone to meet a star and the star didn't even realize that you are Atlee, and he said 'where is Atlee?'"

 

While the question was based on how young Atlee looks/looked, director Atlee's answer has prompted the Tamil section into wrongly assuming that Atlee's looks were made fun of, or Atlee's skin colour was taken a jab at. Kapil Sharma for his skit comedies that feature on his shows, has faced heat from time to time for making body-shaming jokes, but his question to Atlee wasn't one such instance. This was promptly pointed out by the Hindi speaking section of social media. 

Kapil never spoke about Skin colour there, I don't know why people are misinterpreting.

He was just mentioning about being such "young" & people would have thought Atlee must be in his 40's considering his huge success.

It was Atlee who misunderstood & answered it differently.

— Dattu SRT ARR (@FilmyDattu) December 15, 2024

Many including host Kapil Sharma lauded Atlee for his answer nevertheless, for it imparted body positivity to the onlookers. "Sir in a way I understood your question okay. I'll try to answer. I'm actually very thankful to AR Murugadoss Sir. Because he produced my first film. He asked my script but he didn't see how I'm looking, whether I'm capable of it or not, but he loved my narration. I think world should see that. By appearance we should not judge. By heart you have to judge."