The issue of men molesting women in crowded buses became a laughing matter on the sets of Tamil Bigg Boss 3 recently. The show's host, actor Kamal Haasan, was talking about the difficulty faced while travelling in buses, saying that no one wants to travel in crowded buses by choice as passengers end up being pushed and shoved.

Haasan goes on to add that there are some who get on buses specifically to grope people. He is interrupted by actor Tamil actor Saravanan, who acted as the lead in over 25 films in the '90s, who casually admitted that he has groped women in buses when he was in college.

His confession elicited laughter from the host as well as the audience, who cheered and clapped. Kamal Haasan's spokesperson, however, said to India Today that the actor was being sarcastic. A video clip of the whole conversation on Bigg Boss 3 is doing the round of social media, attracting considerable backlash. Twitter is full of angry comments directed towards Saravanan as well as the controversial show.

Singer Chinmayi Sripaada called out the incident after a fan posted a short clip of the Bigg Boss episode in question, saying, "A Tamil channel aired a man proudly proclaiming he used the Public Bus Transport system to molest/grope women - to cheers from the audience. And this is a joke. To the audience. To the women clapping. To the molester. Damn."

A Tamil channel aired a man proudly proclaiming he used the Public Bus Transport system to molest/grope women - to cheers from the audience.And this is a joke. To the audience. To the women clapping. To the molester.Damn. https://t.co/kaL7PMDw4u — Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 27, 2019

Chinmayi is just one among many netizens who were shocked to see that the issue of molestation of women in public was a joking matter on a reality show, and criticised Haasan and the show's team for treating it casually.

What the fuck! How did @ikamalhaasan s team think that it was okay to keep him on the show or at the very least not edit it out? Good illustrative example for us, but this perpetuates the normalization among Tamil viewers. — Sandhya Ramesh (@sandygrains) July 28, 2019

Condemnation should have happened in the next second. Not made a joke of it. I am not gonna watch that show or the episode anyway. — Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) July 27, 2019

I was shell shocked seeing this on TV last night!For a second, I thought he was gonna say he beat up some guy who molested girls on the bus... Didn't expect him to say he molested, that too to loud cheer from the audience!Totally aghast! — (@amabirdman) July 28, 2019

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