Gaurav Khanna Breaks Silence on Copying Allegations in Celebrity MasterChef: ‘Even Shah Rukh Khan Copies…’

Celebrity MasterChef: Television actor Gaurav Khanna, who recently took home the title in the debut season of 'Celebrity MasterChef', has finally addressed the controversy surrounding his win.

During his stint on the reality cooking show, the 'Anupamaa' star was accused of copying a dessert created by Swiss chef Dives Josh. Speaking on Siddharth Kannan’s podcast, Gaurav responded to the claims, crediting Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna for shutting down the criticism effectively.

When he was asked about people trolling him for copying a dish, Gaurav said, “Copy? Main research karta tha aur mujhe jo cheez kahin acchi lagi ya kuch… jaise aap dekhein koi movie hai, for example maine ek interview suna tha jahaan pe log bolte the ki Shah Rukh Khan jo hain wo Dilip Kumar ki copy karte hain, bahot pehle suna tha Bachchan sahab[Amitabh Bachchan] bhi karte hain emulate. Phir maine suna tha ki Raj Kapoor sahab Charlie Chaplin ko emulate karte the ya like karte honge. Toh kya ye karne se Raj Kapoor, Dilip sahab, Bachchan sahab aur Shah Rukh Khan ki value kam hai kya? So again, logon ka kaam hai kehna. One produces it and make it our own (I used to do research, and whenever I found something I liked or something interesting… like if you see a movie, for example, I had once heard an interview where people said Shah Rukh Khan copies Dilip Kumar, or I had heard long ago that Bachchan Sahab (Amitabh Bachchan) also emulates (others). Then I also heard that Raj Kapoor Sahab used to emulate Charlie Chaplin. So, does doing this reduce the value of Raj Kapoor, Dilip Sahab, Bachchan Sahab, or Shah Rukh Khan? Again, it’s the job of people to say these things)”.

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He went on to express gratitude towards Chef Vikas Khanna for giving a befitting reply, supporting him.

He added that it was chef Vikas Khanna, an eight-time Michelin star recipient and a judge on the show, who addressed the issue during the competition itself. “My reply has been given by eight-time Michelin star winner, chef Vikas Khanna. I didn’t ask him to say anything, and I didn’t answer myself during the entire controversy at all. My work was to make a good dish and that’s what I did. It got announced as the best dish, went viral, and I got a lot of accolades for that. Some people said that it is inspired from somewhere, but then Chef Vikas said that he saw the dish many years ago. So no one can say who is inspired by whom.”

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Gaurav added, “I am an insignificant, normal human being who has been making food for three months. He (Vikas Khanna) put an end to this segment in such a good way. So jab Dronacharya ne khud jawaab dedia hai, toh Arjun kyu jawaab de? (So when Dronacharya himself has given the answer, why should Arjun answer?) I like my work to speak and my work says that I have won MasterChef. I really worked hard on it. I am very proud of winning this show. It is my first reality show. This is something which I never expected."

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