What was meant to be an innocent attempt at getting celebrities out of their glass castles has spiralled into a massive controversy that has landed its participants at the threshold of the judiciary.

Following widespread outrage over the AIB Knockout Roast featuring actors Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor, and hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar, the Pune police on Thursday lodged an FIR against 14 people including the trio, charging them with obscenity.

The FIR came amid several reports that it was someone from the Bollywood fraternity - superstar Salman Khan - and not the moral police brigand who got the satire group to take the super-successful video off YouTube.

Furious? Salman Khan (left) is rumoured to have made an angry phone call to AIB team member Tanmay Bhatt over the jokes against his newly-wed sister Arpita (right)

A wildly popular concept in the West, the roast - a comedic platform where participating celebrities are bombarded with insults to tickle a live audience - is a relatively novel concept in India, where celebrities have only recently begun to crack jokes at their expense.

The AIB Roast too was held before a live audience, and only a shorter, far more sanitised, version uploaded on the video portal.

By popular opinion a welcome attempt at risque humour, the video had netted nearly 8 million views on YouTube.

Salman was reportedly furious at certain gags about his newly-wed sister Arpita, who is said to have dated Kapoor in the past. The jokes in question, however, were not part of the video. Even so, it has been reported that Salman called up AIB team member Tanmay Bhatt early one morning to convey his displeasure about the “vulgar jokes”.

(From left) Ranveer Singh, film-maker Karan Johar and Arjun Kapoor at the controversial AIB Knockout Roast

It must be noted that the two-page statement issued by AIB after the video was taken off categorically denies the decision was driven by any late night threat call.

Despite a wave of support from different quarters - the strongest being from Bollywood - participants of the roast have been facing a massive backlash from the moral police over the show’s satirical content.