Days after the arrest of two stand-up comedians arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police for their jokes on actor and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, supporters of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) disrupted stand-up comedian Sarat Uday Boddeda’s show in Bengaluru on Saturday and demanded an apology over a 2-year-old joke on Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his son, Minister Nara Lokesh. (Also Read: Who is stand-up comedian Anudeep Katikala? Detained by AP police for jokes on Pawan Kalyan, Ram Charan and family)
TDP supporters disrupt stand-up comedy show
Hyderabad-based stand-up comic Sarat was performing a solo show at Ministry of Comedy in Kormangala, Bengaluru, on Saturday, April 25. CCTV footage of what happened is now being widely circulated online. In the video, a man in the front row is seen walking onto the stage and interrupting the show. Soon, a few other men join him. At one point in the video, they reveal there are 10 of them. The timestamp on the video shows the incident happened on April 25, around 6.10 PM.
They forcefully ask Sarat to apologise for his jokes about the CM, even as the comic claims he has already apologised for them two years ago. They insist on an apology to Chandrababu, Lokesh and TDP cadres, and Sarat agrees. Despite issuing the apology again, they issue him a ‘final warning’ and ask him to be ‘careful’ about making such jokes again. They also use abusive words while disrupting the show. When supporters insist he joked about the Tirupati laddu issue, Sarat clarifies that he never did.
At one point, they also ask him to chant ‘Jai Telugu Desam’, ‘Jai Chandrababu Naidu’ and ‘Jai Lokesh anna’, but that’s where the comedian puts his foot down. Sarat then asks them to leave the show as they’ve gotten their apology. When they retort, “Will you refund our ticket money then?” he agrees to repay them. Disgruntled, they kick the chairs before leaving when asked to show their tickets.
What did Sarat Uday say?
Sarat uploaded a video in December 2024, months after the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP coalition came to power in Andhra Pradesh. Titled ‘Andhra Politics’, snippets of the video that recently resurfaced had jokes about the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), which was previously in power, the TDP and the Jana Sena Party (JSP). At that time, he had issued an apology after backlash and threats of legal action.
After the Bengaluru show, Sarat clarified to The News Minute that he had refrained from jokes on Andhra politicians since then. However, after the recent arrests of Anudeep Katikala and Rafiq over their jokes on Pawan Kalyan, TDP and JSP supporters dug up his old videos. The comedian alleged that they threatened to beat him up. Some X (formerly Twitter) accounts also posted information about Sarat’s upcoming shows, calling on the Andhra Pradesh police to take action against him.