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Updated: Mar 23, 2017 07:24 IST

Much has been written about the Kapil Sharma-Sunil Grover fight on an Air India Melbourne-Delhi-Mumbai flight on Friday. Amid speculation about what happened, HT finally brings you the blow-by-blow account of why the spat broke out, as told by an eye-witness.

Wishing to stay anonymous, the source who was on-board the 12-hour flight told us that Kapil had consumed an entire bottle of Glenfiddich whisky, and was visibly drunk. When the food was being served by the cabin crew, his team (the crew and cast of Kapil’s TV show, The Kapil Sharma Show, who had gone to Australia for a show) started to eat. This angered Kapil, who was still finishing his drink.

Sunil Grover has reportedly quit The Kapil Sharma Show. ( Yogen Shah )

“Jab maine khaana shuru nahi kiya toh tum logo ne kaise le liya khaana?” he shouted, well within the ear shot of co-passengers. The eye-witness reveals that Kapil’s co-stars looked so startled that they started returning their half-finished food trays to the crew. At this point, Sunil Grover tried to calm Kapil down, who then started yelling at him. “Kapil got up, took off his shoe, and hit Sunil,” says the source, adding, “He also pulled Sunil’s collar, and repeatedly slapped him.”

In the scuffle that broke out in the aisle, a female crew member of Kapil’s also got hit. “Grover tried to keep his calm and was trying to tell Kapil to not create a scene. By this time, Kapil’s abuses were so loud that he could be heard also where the economy class passengers were sitting. When the cabin crew asked Kapil’s team to calm him down, they refused and said they were scared. Kapil shouted at his team and said, “Tum logon ko maine banaya hai. Sabka career khatam kar dunga. Tum TV waale kya samajhte ho? Sabko nikaal dunga main,” says the source. To Sunil Grover, he kept repeating, “Gaya tha na tu toh. Aaya na waapas mere hi paas” (in reference to Sunil quitting Kapil’s show, Comedy Nights with Kapil, earlier to start his own on a rival channel, and later returning to the show after failing to get enough TRPs) .

By this time, most passengers were rattled and several of them enquired from the crew if any emergency measure could be taken to diffuse the situation. “While yelling, Kapil also kept loudly abusing in Punjabi. At some point, the cabin crew told Kapil that they would have to call security on landing, if he didn’t stop. He, however, kept repeating, “Arrey yeh log samajhte kya hai. In sab ka career meri wajah se hai,” says the source.

Interestingly, before the news of the fight hit headlines, Kapil Sharma made a sudden announcement on Twitter about his girlfriend Ginni (who he plans to marry next year), and that’s now being seen as a preventive measure to deflect negative attention. But the word got out and both Kapil and Sunil ended up tweeting about the incident. At the time this story was filed, Sunil Grover had missed two days of shoot of the show, amid speculation that he has quit The Kapil Sharma Show, in protest. Co-actors Ali Asgar and Chandan Prabhakar also did not report for shoot, in an apparent solidarity with Grover.

Kapil Sharma did not respond to our request for comments on the fight. Sunil Grover replied to us with an SMS, “Sorry, no interviews for some days.”

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