Actor Prakash Raj has been booked by police in Karnataka’s Bagalkot district in India after jeering at the country’s third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3.

According to the police, a complaint was filed by the leaders of Hindu organizations who demanded that action be taken against the actor.

What happened?

On Sunday, Raj posted a cartoon picture on X in which a man wearing a shirt and a lungi is pouring tea. According to The Wire, the screenshot was from an old short meme about Neil Armstrong coming across a shopkeeper, a Malayalee entrepreneur offering him a glass of legendary Kerala tea on the moon.This picture was captioned : BREAKING NEWS:- First picture coming from the Moon by #VikramLander Wowww #justasking

BREAKING NEWS:-
First picture coming from the Moon by #VikramLander Wowww #justasking pic.twitter.com/RNy7zmSp3G

— Prakash Raj (@prakashraaj) August 20, 2023

This was taken as an offence by many Indians since Chandrayaan-3 mission is considered as a matter of national pride. Raj resultantly faced heavy backlash on social media by angry Indians.

Chandrayaan 3 is something whole of India must be proud of, irrespective of political ideology.

Know the boundary between political vs national trolling, else stick to wetting your pants in movies.

— Cabinet Minister, Ministry of Memes,🇮🇳 (@memenist_) August 20, 2023

This is tragically sad. The work of @isro and #Chandrayaan_3 are one of those rare things which ignites sparks of unity, passion and optimism in a billion hearts. If you can't celebrate that, then your hate for an individual is more intense than your love for the nation. https://t.co/uMDLwLePLT

— Yashwant Deshmukh 🇮🇳 (@YRDeshmukh) August 21, 2023

Some people, however, came to Raj’s rescue

Morons trolling @prakashraaj have never heard the joke about Neil Armstrong being offered a cup of chai by a Malayalee on moon! https://t.co/EhwADDQ1LE

— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) August 21, 2023

One corrected a famous news platform, India Today

Hello @IndiaToday, how did you conclude that Prakash Raj was mocking Ex ISRO Chief and Moon Mission? https://t.co/jNVSigoXdo pic.twitter.com/9Rg19EM5Xm

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) August 21, 2023

Prakash Raj eventually responded to the trolling and criticism in another tweet saying,
“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 dont get a joke then the joke is on you .. GROW UP #justasking”

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 dont get a joke then the joke is on you .. GROW UP #justasking https://t.co/NFHkqJy532

— Prakash Raj (@prakashraaj) August 21, 2023