Actor Prakash Raj has been booked in a police station of Karnataka’s Bagalkot district for a social media post on India’s moon mission Chandrayaan-3.
According to authorities, on Tuesday, the actor posted a caricature on the microblogging site X, depicting a man in a shirt and lungi pouring tea. Sharing the picture, he wrote, “First view just arrived from Chandrayaan… #VikramLander #justasking.”
Amid the social media uproar, Prakash Raj clarified on X that his remarks were purely intended as a joke. “Hate sees only Hate…I was referring to a joke of #Armstrong times celebrating our Kerala Chaiwala – which Chaiwala did the Trolls see? If you don’t get a joke, then the joke is on you…GROW UP #justasking,” he posted.
However, a few users have come forward to defend the actor’s actions, citing one instance where this joke was aimed exclusively at the people of Kerala.
A user shared on X: “Those who know only hate will see only hate. If it makes any difference, @prakashraaj is referencing a joke (that predates anyone you feel he is insulting) about how we find Keralites at every corner of the world and how the first thing Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin saw when they stepped foot on the moon was a Malayali selling tea there.”
The complete post further read,
“This is a classic joke made by us Keralites about ourselves, and we wholeheartedly accept and laugh about it since decades. Now, if you insist on sticking to hate even after it has been explained to you, that says a lot about you, doesn’t it?”
