Comedian Shyam Rangeela – whose video imitating Prime Minister Narendra Modi (with a mimicked version of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi making a ‘guest appearance’) went viral on social media – has alleged that Star Plus refused to air his act recorded for the channel’s reality show ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’.

“Almost a month after the episode was originally recorded, I got a phone call from the production team of the reality show asking me to shoot a new act because the channel decided to not air it,” Rangeela told The Wire. This was after two further scripts that he had submitted were rejected because they were on Modi.

Rangeela, unlike other contestants who had to give auditions, was invited by the channel to participate in the reality show after his videos mimicking Modi and other politicians went viral on social media.

“The production team told me that the decision to not air my act was taken because the channel feared that it will offend some people and they might protest against them,” he claimed.