Seems like TRPs aren’t the only thing missing from The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, which airs on Star Plus! Clearly, Akshay Kumar, who is known for his comedic timing on screen, is missing a good sense of humour too. The actor is in trouble over a vulgar joke that he allegedly cracked at comedian and fellow judge Mallika Dua during an episode that is yet to be aired.

Needless to say, no one was amused. According to reports, when Mallika’s fellow judge Zakir Khan asked Akshay to accompany them to “ring a bell” as a mark of appreciation for a contestant, the actor said, “aap bell bajao, main aap ko bajata hun.” A short snippet of the incident is doing rounds:

Unacceptable behaviour! Male actors still get away with making sexually colored remarks under the guise of ‘comedy’. #MeToo  @MallikaDua pic.twitter.com/IwZLS9XQMB

— SheSays (@SheSaysIndia) October 25, 2017

Mallika Dua expressed her discomfort on Twitter but soon after deleted the tweet citing cyber bullying as a reason.

https://twitter.com/ishivam_singh/status/923433646605860864

While Akshay Kumar’s official response is still awaited, Mallika Dua’s father and journalist Vinod Dua expressed his distaste at the actor’s comments and sort of threatened him on a Facebook post, which was also removed by the social media platform. This is what the journalist said online:

https://twitter.com/MallikaDua/status/923419677488848896

However, there seems to be another side to the story. According to reports on Bollywood Hungama, a source close to Akshay Kumar has claimed that Mallika Dua is making these allegations after she and fellow comedians Zakir Khan and Hussain Dalal were asked to step down as judges on The Great Indian Laughter Challenge owing to low ratings of the show. They have been replaced by Shreyas Talpade and Sajid Khan.

Now we wait for an official statement by Akshay Kumar on the whole controversy.