Have you seen Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal singing “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil”? There is high chance that you’ve seen it after it was shared by one of your friends on social media or you had received the video clip on WhatsApp. If you don’t remember, here it is:
Kejriwal after Friday release #HappyDiwali pic.twitter.com/YplSZO47cL
— Super Londay (@SuperLonday) October 30, 2016
This video clip – made after mixing publicly available video and audio files in a funny but meticulous way to match the lip movements – has been created by guys who call themselves “Super Londay”. Many of such ‘fun cuts’ created by them have gone viral over last few months, even though not many people knew about the origin of these funny videos.
As time passed and people started realising that it’s the same set of guys who come up with these funny videos, they started following the social media accounts of Super Londay on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Currently they have attracted over 6000 followers on Twitter, 11,300 subscribers on YouTube, and 30,300 likes on Facebook.
But they have also attracted the attention of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which doesn’t find their videos funny. Many of the videos created by Super Londay have Arvind Kejriwal in them, so much so, that they started appearing as top search suggestions along with Kejriwal on Google:
Achievement Unlocked. That’s every Video We have made on Him. pic.twitter.com/9CngjH9LNB
— Super Londay (@SuperLonday) March 1, 2017
This clearly didn’t humour AAP, and a person named Akshay Malhotra, who is affiliated to the party and allegedly even working for the Delhi government, complained to YouTube and got four of their videos removed. Not only that, because the complaint was about “copyright infringement”, the YouTube account of Super Londay now risks being disabled in a week:
He he look third Strike. Account Disabled ??? pic.twitter.com/oMaYtPGar5
— Super Londay (@SuperLonday) April 4, 2017
This clearly left the guys at Super Londay surprised and shocked because they heavily edit the videos and such edits should come under “fair use” policy of YouTube. They have written to YouTube protesting this decision, but are not sure if they will get a fair treatment given they have rubbed a political party with substantial online clout the wrong way.
However, this has not disheartened Himanshu and Sandeep – the guys behind Super Londay – who have said that they will not quit making videos even if their account is disabled by YouTube.
They have put the back up of their videos – unfortunately only two of the four could be backed up – on their website and have said that they will start a new YouTube channel if the current one is disabled by YouTube.
Speaking to OpIndia.com, Himanshu said that he was disappointed that someone related to AAP went to this extent to muzzle something that was at best satirical and at worst just random fun cut.
“During Anna days, a cartoonist named Aseem Trivedi was arrested by the then Congress government and people, who are now part of AAP, had called it an attack on freedom of expression. Looks like the same ideology that arrested a cartoonist has now been adopted by AAP,” Himanshu said.
Himanshu further pointed out that Arvind Kejriwal himself shares and re-tweets many messages making fun of others including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but AAP is unable to tolerate a few funny videos of Kejriwal. He maintains that the complaint of copyright infringement was unfair and disabling their account is unjust. He wonders why YouTube agreed with the complainant.
“Even NDTV had complained against our channel after we had created a fun cut of Barkha Dutt’s interview with Arvind Kejriwal, but YouTube didn’t find that a case of copyright infringement. They allowed NDTV to monetise the video but didn’t delete the video. However, they have deleted the videos that were complained against by that AAP guy,” he informed.
Himanshu further informs that he and Sandeep, his college friend and partner in crime, were anyway planning to cut down on fun cut videos and focus on creating original content, but this move by AAP has left them with a bitter taste.
“Perhaps they just needed to ignore us. Creative people don’t like doing same thing again and again – unlike the politicians – and we might have stopped making Kejriwal videos, but they appear to be impatient lot,” the Super Londay co-founder said.
Himanshu and Sandeep had founded Super Londay on 1st May last year, and they might have to start afresh on 1st May this year if YouTube refuses to hear their case favourably. But they are not complaining. They are Londay with Superpowers apparently!
