Anurag Kashyap not to fly IndiGo until ban lifted on Kunal Kamra

Extending his support to comedian and political satirist Kunal Kamra, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has decided to not fly any of the airlines that have imposed temporary bans on the former.

Taking to Twitter on February 3, Kashyap - a strong critic of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - wrote how he had actually ditched an IndiGo flight and flown Vistara to reach Kolkata. Although this meant he had to wake up at 4 am and arrive at Kolkata seven hours early for an event he had been invited to, the filmmaker said he was fine with it.

The event organisers booked him an IndiGo flight (one of the four airlines to ban Kamra for invading the personal space of TV news anchor Arnab Goswami) to inaugurate a film festival. However, according to The Telegraph, Kashyap said: “I will wake up at 4 am but I will not fly IndiGo.”

No @IndiGo6E .. on @airvistara .. in solidarity with @kunalkamra88 pic.twitter.com/HagCufQf34

— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) February 3, 2020

He added: “I said I would not fly IndiGo. I want to fly Vistara. The IndiGo flight was on February 3 afternoon and the Vistara flight was in the wee hours. The organisers informed me that flying Vistara would mean waking up at 4 am. I said I am okay with that.”

Later, when the filmmaker arrived at the venue, the emcee of the event reportedly introduced him as the person who “humbly refused to fly IndiGo in solidarity with Kunal Kamra”, to which Kashyap said: “This is not the time a person can afford to be politically correct. It is imperative to take a stand against a government that doesn’t respect you.”

Notably, for any person looking to extend similar support to the stand-up comedian, flying Air Vistara and AirAsia would be the only option as Air India, SpiceJet, and GoAir have also banned Kamra from flying for an unspecified period.