Dear Kapil Sharma, it's no longer funny

Kapil's superstardom wasn't overnight. He had been proving his comic genius and emceeing prowess on television for over seven years before he got to launch his own show in 2013.

He won The Great Indian Laughter Challenge in 2007 and followed it up with winning six seasons of Comedy Circus.

He has also successfully hosted the sixth season of the popular dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa.

Comedy Nights with Kapil ensured his direct entry not just in the living rooms of countless Indians but also everywhere else.

He hosted three editions of Filmfare Awards alongside Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan and has featured in several celebrity talk/reality shows including The Anupam Kher Show and Dance India Dance.

In 2016, Forbes India ranked him 11 on its Celebrity 100 list.

You know you are famous when Ambitabh Bhachchan invites you as a celebrity guest on his iconic game show, when Karan Johar wants you on his controversial couch for a chat over coffee, when Bollywood A-listers visit you to promote their film.

Also, when your humble comedy show gets you your big Bollywood break and your tweets send the tabloid mills into a tizzy.

It is as if the Kapil-Sunil episode was sitting on a ticking bomb, waiting out its time.

Reports of Kapil's starry tantrums (cancelled shoots, ill health, short temper) had already begun to surface, the acts on his rejigged outing for Sony, The Kapil Sharma Show, were a shadow of Comedy Nights.

Kapil was cashing in on nostalgia. But he took too much for granted.

You know you're falling when your Twitter becomes a sad spectacle of apologies/explanations, when you are reduced to making embarrassing jokes about your unprofessionalism to publicize your new show, when you go on an abusing spree on social media.

I wonder what my father will say about this Kapil, who has had too much success and doesn't know what to do with it anymore.