Kunal Kamra Appeals to BookMyShow: A Fight for Artists’ Rights

Online ticketing platform BookMyShow has stopped selling tickets for comedian Kunal Kamra’s shows and removed him from their site. This happened after Kamra made a joke about Eknath Shinde, a politician, which upset some people. Kamra responded with an open letter to BookMyShow, asking them to either keep him listed as an artist or give him the contact info of the people who bought tickets to his shows.

Kamra understands that BookMyShow needs to work well with the government because Mumbai is a big city for entertainment. He noted that big music events would not happen without government support. However, he believes stopping him from selling tickets hurts artists like him, limiting their access to their audience.

Kamra mentioned that BookMyShow takes a 10% cut of ticket sales as part of their business model. He pointed out that all comedians have to spend money on advertising, which adds extra costs to their work. He said that it’s important for artists to have access to their audience’s information so they can keep performing and earn a living.

In his letter, Kamra also highlighted that if he is not listed, he still deserves to have access to the audience he built from his solo shows. He asked BookMyShow to either stop delisting him or share the audience information collected from his performances.

Kamra does not support boycotting private businesses and understands that BookMyShow is making decisions based on its own interests. Recently, he faced trouble after making jokes about Eknath Shinde and is currently under legal issues with the police because of his comments.