Rajiv Dhingra: “I’m Not The Villain  Of Kapil Sharma’s Saga”

Lately there have been many reports of Kapil Sharma’s show being sabotaged and aborted by his friend and  associate Rajiv Dhingra who incidentally served as  creative director of  The Kapil Sharma Show after the infamous midair scuffle between Kapil and Sunil Grover which resulted in  half the actors from the show walking out.

But when contacted Rajiv has a different story to tell. “Now that the Kapil Sharma Show is terminated , at least for now, it is easy to make a scapegoat out of the someone who is very close to Kapil. And I am very close to him. I am  his childhood friend. We’ve grown up together.And I’ve been with him from the beginning. It pains me to see fingers being pointed at me  for the show being closed down.”

It is being said that Kapil would cancel shootings of The Kapil Sharma Show to give dates  for the feature film Firangi which Rajiv is directing with Kapil in the lead.

Protests Rajiv, “This is nothing but  an attempt to make  me  look like the villain of the piece. There were people on the show who hoped to gain Kapil’s confidence and trust by discrediting me. I wish them all the best. But I don’t think they will succeed in their evil designs. I’ve never used my  closeness to Kapil to benefit personally  from the association. Even the allegation that I ruined the show after I  took over as the creative director following the midair incident , is  a lie. And those spreading such lies about me should look  into their hearts to see how much they’ve damaged Kapil’s image and how prominently they’ve contributed to the show’s closure. As far my taking over as director is concerned, when the old team left Kapil after the fight, I filled in the creative gap on Kapil’s insistence.He wanted me to step in as his trusted friend and  associate till the time the  show  got back on its feet  again as he also knew that we would be busy with  post-production of his film later. All the media articles to sabotage my name is only because they want to turn away the attention from their flop show which is on the verge of getting shut.”
So whom is Rajiv  pointing fingers at?  “They know who they are. They will be exposed in  time. By trying to make me  a scapegoat thay’re only hastening their  own ruination.”

Rajiv says Kapil has genuine health issues. “He is overworked. He would complete two episodes of The Kapil Sharma Show and rush to shoot for my  film . His blood pressure would rise alarmingly and his sugar level fell. He needs this break before he comes back again. The truth is, there has never been a stand-up comedian  like Kapil. There never will.He can’t be stopped .”

It is being said that Kapil would cancel  episodes  of The Kapil Sharma Show to shoot for his film Firangi with Rajiv Dhingra.

Rajiv stoutly denies this allegation. “We always shot when Kapil had completed shooting for the show.These are false allegation being spread by those very people in the team who would create a confusion about the dates so that Kapil ended up shooting neither for the Show nor our film.In our mythologies it is always insiders who  bring an empire down. Kapil’s empire has been brought down by people he trusted.But it is  not me.”