Actor Prakash Raj has been booked in a police station of Karnataka’s Bagalkot district over a social media post, in which he allegedly mocked India’s ambitious third lunar mission– Chandrayaan-3, police said on Tuesday.

“A complaint has been filed against actor Prakash Raj for his post on the Chandrayaan-3 mission,” police said.
“Hindu organisations leaders filed a complaint against the actor in Banahatti police station of Bagalkote district and have demanded action,” they added.

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The veteran actor on Sunday took to microblogging site X, sharing a caricature of a man in a shirt and lungi pouring tea.

Sharing the picture, he wrote, “First view just arrived from Chandrayaan .. #VikramLander #justasking.”
Prakash Raj has been facing heavy backlash since then with people saying that the Chandrayaan-3 mission is linked to the country’s pride.

Faced with social media outrage Prakash Raj clarified on X that his comments were only 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 dont get a joke then the joke is on you..GROW UP #justasking” he posted.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the moon on August 23, around 18:04 hours IST.

Live action will be available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV from 17:27 IST on Aug 23, 2023.

India will be the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat after the United States, Russia, and China, but India will be the only country in the world to land on the lunar south pole.

The primary objectives of Chandrayaan-3 mission are threefold — to demonstrate safe and soft landing on lunar surface; to demonstrate rover roving on the moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

Chandrayaan-3’s development phase commenced in January 2020 with the launch planned sometime in 2021.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unforeseen delay to the mission’s progress.

Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on July 14, 2023 via the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota at 2:35 PM.