''On Air With AIB'' was an Indian web television satire show created by

All India Bakchod All India Bakchod (abbreviated as AIB) was a Mumbai-based comedy company which created the eponymous podcast, YouTube channel and production company. The name is a parody of All India Radio. It began in 2012 as a humour/pop-culture podcast co- ...

Star India Disney Star Private Limited is an Indian media conglomerate and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Disney Star network runs more than 70 TV channels in eight languages, reac ...

's digital platform Hotstar. It aired between 2015 and 2018. It was modeled after ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...

'', ''

SNL ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'', and ''

Last Week Tonight A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by Shoemaking, shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes. Lasts typically come in pairs and have been made from various materials, including hardwoods, cas ...

''. The first season was replayed on

Star Plus StarPlus is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly ''Star India''), a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. The network's programming consists of family dramas, comedies, ...

and

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

on the weekends. Seasons two and three were Hotstar digital exclusives, and shorter segments were uploaded on the AIB

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel. The show was produced by

Only Much Louder Only Much Louder (OML) is an Indian artist management, event management company and a content production house that was co-founded by Vijay Nair and Girish "Bobby" Talwar and Arjun S Ravi in Mumbai. It informally began, in 2002, as an independent ...

, a Mumbai-based entertainment company and AIB's former

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

, and was cancelled in its third season due to two separate instances of lack of redressal of sexual misconduct complaints by employees against collaborators, by the group's co-founders

Tanmay Bhat Tanmay Bhat (born 23 June 1987) is an Indian YouTuber, comedian, Screenwriter, scriptwriter, Actor, Performing arts, performer and Film producer, producer. He was the co-founder and former CEO of the creative agency ''All India Bakchod'' (AIB) ...

and Gursimranjeet Singh Khamba. The opening theme "Tragedy Mein Comedy" (finding comedy in tragedy), is written, and performed, by Mumbai-based MC and producer

Naezy Naved Shaikh (born 10 August 1993), better known by his stage name Naezy, is an Indian rapper from Mumbai, Maharashtra, who first broke into mainstream rap with the song ''"Mere Gully Mein"'' featuring fellow rapper DIVINE. A fictional version o ...

. The track is produced by the production duo StunnahSezBeatz. All studio episodes were shot in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Production

Pre Show

Prior to the show, AIB had established themselves as sketch comedy artists. Between 2012 and 2015, they uploaded numerous sketches—satirical, parody, spoof—and received popularity for ''It's Your Fault'', a satirical take on Indian patriarchy. After facing public backlash for using insult comedy in their first large-scale production—a comedy central roast copy called

AIB Knockout The ''All India Bakchod Knockout'', a.k.a. ''AIB Knockout'' was a celebrity roast adaptation created by Mumbai based creative agency All India Bakchod (AIB). It was performed and filmed in December, 2014, and was uploaded on their YouTube channel ...

—the group did not upload anything on YouTube between 16 December 2014, and 11 April 2015. In order to regain goodwill, the first video they uploaded was a call to action sketch that urged viewers to fight for

net neutrality in India Mechanisms for establishing rules ensuring Net neutrality in India, are at present mainly enforced by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). At present, there are no specific legislation regarding Net Neutrality in India. On 12 July ...

. Around this time the group started hiring to begin per-production, and scripting, the show.

Announcement and release

On 14 September 2015, they uploaded the first ''On Air With AIB'' advertisement. In it fictional characters are seen congratulating the group on their copied roast, and fantasizing about a second one. It includes a skit of AIB spoofing their own roast. In a press release, the group said the show would "cover themes of national and local interest," and Bhat confirmed that they had been working on the show for the past "3-4 months." The show was taped in studio, in Mumbai. First at Filmalaya Private Limited, Andheri, and later at the space above The Habitat, Khar. S01E01 premiered on 29 October 2015. The first season ran for 20 episodes, second season ran 10 episodes, and the third season was cancelled after 3 episodes.

Cancellation

Two separate cases of sexual misconduct allegations were leveled against AIB co-founders Tanmay Bhat, and Gursimranjeet Singh Khamba in the first week of October, 2018. Bhat was accused of being complicit in a sexual harassment case after he ignored complaints against a former employee,

Utsav Chakraborty Utsav Chakraborty is an Indian comedian, writer and actor. He has performed stand-up, written comedy, and acted in sketches and shows, who is known for his frequent collaborations with All India Bakchod. Career Chakraborty gained online popul ...

, and continued a professional relationship between him and AIB. Bhat later apologized on Twitter. In the second incident an unnamed woman accused Khamba of violating her consent, and emotional abuse. Khamba has denied these allegations. Hotstar cancelled the show on 8 October 2018.

Season

One

Was divided into 10 episode sets of Hindi and English each. Bhat and Khamba anchored the Hindi episodes, while Joshi and Shakya anchored it in English. Critics called it "not particularly funny" and an "attempt at a news satire show along the lines of

and its popular spin-off

with

John Oliver John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. He came to wider attention ...

." Reviews also noted its close similarity to Oliver's show.

Two

They changed the format by creating shorter segments, inviting guests, introducing a podcast style segment, and making it multilingual. It was 10 episodes long, and uploaded as shorter segments online. The premier was called "underwhelming at best''.''" Many frequent collaborators such as comedians Abish Matthew,

Kanan Gill Kanan Singh Gill is an Indian stand-up comedian, actor and YouTuber. He won the Punch Line Bangalore Competition. He is known for hosting the YouTube series ''Pretentious Movie Reviews'' where he reviews campy Bollywood films along with fellow st ...

Biswa Kalyan Rath Biswa Kalyan Rath is an Indian stand-up comedian, writer and YouTuber. He is from Odisha. He came into prominence through the YouTube comedy series, ''Pretentious Movie Reviews'' with fellow comedian Kanan Gill. He played a supporting role in ...

, Rahul Subramaniam, Kenny Sebastian, Varun Thakur, Neville Shah, Kaneez Surka,

Sumukhi Suresh Sumukhi Suresh (born 18 October 1987) is an actor, stand-up comedian, writer and director from India. She is popularly known for her humorous sketches which she writes and stars in for live performances as well as online platforms. In an online art ...

, Zakir Khan,

Anuvab Pal Anuvab Pal (born 27 April 1976) is an Indian stand up comedian, screenwriter, playwright and novelist. He is occasionally featured as a rotating co-host on Season 4 of the podcast ''The Bugle''. Career Pal co-wrote the 2007 Indian comedy, '' ...

, Azeem Banatwala, Malika Dua and Varun Grover were the guest interviews.

Three

They largely stuck with the same format as season two. Guests on this season included BuzzFeed India employee Srishti Dixit, former (Buzzfeed India) employee Rega Jha, comedian Rahul Subramaniam, and comedian Urooj Ashfaq. Critics said the third season "gets lazy with stale jokes" and it was subsequently cancelled by Hotstar after three episodes because of two separate sexual misconduct allegations against Bhat's complicity within AIB, and Khamba.

References

{{reflist Indian comedy television series Political satirical television series 2015 Indian television series debuts 2018 Indian television series endings Indian political television series StarPlus original programming Hindi-language Disney+ Hotstar original programming News parodies Current affairs shows Television news in India 2010s television news shows Entertainment news shows