Hyderabad: Actor-producer Arbaaz Khan is currently gearing up to host the second season of his celebrity chat show, Pinch. The show, created by Sumit Dutt, will open with its maiden episode featuring Salman Khan. Pinch features celebrities opening up about trolls, the cyberbullying they face, and their coping mechanisms. Arbaaz said the essence of the show is not to "corner" celebrities but to offer them a platform to give insights into their lives, both personal and professional.
When asked about not having his elder brother Salman in the first season, Arbaaz at the teaser launch of Pinch said that to a certain extent it was a conscious decision that he had made for his own good. Arbaaz said he did want to build the show on his own without Salman's help and bring him when the superstar for the sophomore season.
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The second season comes a year after actor Sushant Singh Rajput's demise, which triggered a vicious cycle of online bullying of various Hindi film artistes. Bollywood was blamed for promoting nepotism and ill-treating outsiders. While the extent to which celebrities were impacted differed, Arbaaz said everyone was caught up in the hate storm. "I won't say just me, everyone was affected. The magnitude of it might vary... These are unfounded things, there's no truth or reality. So that hurts even more." Contrary to the perception that stars can get away with anything, Arbaaz said they are always under the scanner in the social media age. "Social media is the only place where stars get zero preferential treatment. Their head is always on the guillotine. They make one wrong turn, and it becomes a big thing."
Pinch season two will stream on QuPlay YouTube channel from July 21.
