'Kapil Sharma went on an abusive rant,' film journalist recalls his feud with the comedian: 'Do you think Govinda, Salman Khan call and abuse people?'

Today, Kapil Sharma is regarded as one of India's most successful comedians, but around 2018, he found himself embroiled in controversy. Reports at the time frequently claimed that he was arriving late to shoots, keeping guests waiting for hours, and in some instances, failing to show up altogether, leading to cancellations.Amid this turbulent period, Kapil became involved in a public feud with entertainment journalist Vickey Lalwani. The comedian allegedly called Lalwani and launched into an abusive tirade, accusing him of publishing negative stories in exchange for money. Looking back on the incident, Lalwani described the episode as one of the most startling experiences of his career.Vickey recalled receiving a call from an unknown number in April 2018. According to him, the caller introduced himself as Kapil Sharma. “Kapil went on an abusive rant, which I think was absolutely shocking,” Vickey said in an interview with Siddharth Kannan. Having spent over two decades in journalism, he said that no actor had ever reacted to his reporting in such a manner, regardless of whether the coverage was flattering or critical.“I told him you can’t do this. He was not willing to listen,” he said. Following the exchange, Vickey decided to release the audio recording of the conversation on social media. Explaining his decision, he said, “I needed to bring it out to the public that your hero is like this.”When asked what may have triggered Kapil's anger, Vickey pointed to reports about the comedian's alleged tardiness. “He had some problem about me writing about him, that he is coming late on set. It happened. He used to come very late. The stars would wait for him; he had cancelled shoots,” he said. Drawing a comparison with other actors who have faced similar criticism, he added, “Do you think Govinda calls and abuses people? Or does Salman do that? Absolutely not.”Vickey also claimed that the conversation crossed personal boundaries when Kapil allegedly made remarks about his daughter. “He said some rubbish about my daughter. It’s all there. I don’t want to get into it again. How can you cross a certain limit? All limits were crossed by him,” he said.The controversy had escalated further in 2018 when Kapil publicly targeted Vickey on social media, accusing the journalist of accepting money to run stories aimed at damaging his reputation.