Jim Sarbh, Your Rape Joke Isn’t Funny!

Jim Sarbh. Tsk, tsk. You disappoint. The actor was at the Cannes Film Festival recently, as were a lot of people from the film fraternity – for their films, their beauty duties, or otherwise. We are entirely unsure of why Mallika Sherawat was there. But that’s not the story. We are talking about Jim Sarbh, and a moment he had with Kangana Ranaut.

A clip of the Padmavat actor has emerged from the festival where he is seen onstage with Kangana Ranaut. Of course, that would be no reason to talk about it. In this video, which is obviously pulled out of a longer moment, Jim is heard saying, ‘“I’d rather be raped by 12 prostitutes than touch alcohol, and the Punjabi says, ‘Me too, I didn’t know that was an option!’. This was the punchline, and everyone cracked up, including Kangana.

Given the situation in our country, the rape reference is distasteful, and certainly not something that should serve as the punchline of a joke. It’s not funny. Kangana is also seen laughing. Yes, the same actress who called out Salman Khan when he made a crude remark about how he felt like a raped woman when he was training for Sultan. That time, Kangana went on record to say, ‘We all agree that it is a horrible thing to say; it is something which is extremely insensitive.’

Jim Sarbh and his team have come out to say that the words were taken out of context, which they probably were. To quote the actor, ‘Sexual violence is a serious issue and I treat it as such. It is unfortunate that my comments were taken out of context. I do not now nor have I ever condoned any form of sexual violence.’

We are glad you think that way. We just don’t think it’s funny.