Nope, Karan Johar Didn't Censor AIB's "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" Meme; Here's Why It Was Taken Down

    Yesterday, All India Bakchod uploaded a joke about Pritam stealing "Bulleya". Today, it was taken down, and Twitter immediately accused K-Jo of censoring the comedians. "We’ve said worse things about Karan Johar to Karan Johar’s face and he didn’t censor us," Tanmay Bhat told BuzzFeed. "Why would he do it for a meme?"

    Andre Borges
    by Andre Borges

    BuzzFeed Staff, India

    “Bulleya”, a song from Karan Johar’s upcoming film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, released on September 16, and has since come under fire for lifting its opening riff from Papa Roach’s hit song “Last Resort”.

    Dharma Productions

    Yesterday, comedy collective All India Bakchod uploaded this image to their social media accounts, and it has since been deleted.

    All India Bakchod

    The joke is a play on the fact that the song's composer Pritam has been accused of copying other artists on numerous occasions.

    Over the course of the day, the hashtag #AIBCensored flooded Twitter, swiftly rising to the top of India's trending topics.

    Twitter

    Twitter users stated that they did indeed see the post on AIB's social pages...

    Jasti Yogesh @PseudoSarcastic

    #AIBCensored & it has been proven once again that freedom of speech is for people with power. Sad. @KaranJohar

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    And were accusing Karan Johar of having it taken down.

    Anupama @Anupama75

    Karan Johar asked them remove the pic #AIBCENSORED @KaranJohar @AllIndiaBakchod

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    Some insisted freedom of speech was violated.

    im just osm @bigdanawab8

    Nobody having any right to take anyone's freedom of speech. @AllIndiaBakchod @karanjohar #AIBCensored

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    There were also alternate theories about why the meme was taken down.

    Gabbbar @GabbbarSingh

    LOL Ajay Devgn's team from "Shivaay" is pushing the paid-trend #AIBCensored to counter Karan Johar. Beneficiary is AIB :D

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    Buuuut that's not what AIB says happened. AIB co-founder Tanmay Bhat told BuzzFeed India over the phone that the meme was deleted because it was an old joke.

    "We have a social media person who's responsible for making jokes. Every now and then, he accidentally makes a joke which has either been done by others before us, or that we're repeating. It's not intentional but it happens sometimes, if you're making 20 jokes a day. Someone pointed out to my social media manager that this joke had been made before, so we took it down.

    Today, I was napping after a long day of work. I woke up to see that I've been censored by Karan Johar, which... Isn't true. We've said worse things about Karan Johar, TO Karan Johar's face and he didn't censor us. Why would he do it for a meme?

    [LAUGHING] I don't know anything about anyone paying anyone to trend this. But if anyone is being paid, I would like to be paid a little also, thank you."

    And here's AIB's official statement:

    Tanmay Bhat @thetanmay

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaha

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    Tanmay Bhat @thetanmay

    Just woke up from a nap. What the actual fuck is going on.

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