Love him or hate him, but you definitely can’t ignore him. Prakash Raj, the Karnataka-born actor who has made a name for himself across the diverse realms of Indian cinema, is known to speak his mind, even if it means walking into the eye of a storm. Raj, a fierce Modi critic, is currently courting headlines over his exchange with Andhra Pradesh Deputy CM and former co-star Pawan Kalyan about the Tirupati prasadam row. When Kalyan raised concerns about the alleged adulteration of the prasadam with animal fat, Raj responded by saying that the deputy CM should investigate the matter instead of spreading apprehensions.
Here, we list five other times Raj has been in the headlines for his remarks or social media posts.
Chandrayaan-3: Last year, when India’s Chandrayaan-3 landed on the Moon, Raj shared a cartoon on X that showed a man pouring tea. He captioned it, “BREAKING NEWS:- First picture coming from the Moon by #VikramLander Wowww #justasking”. As he was trolled for allegedly undermining India’s achievement, he clarified that the cartoon actually stemmed from a Malayali joke dating back to the 1960s, when US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon. “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 wrote.
Cow urine: In 2018, a lawyer filed a court case against Raj over the actor’s comments on cow urine and dung. The comment, as reported by India Today, was: “You do not know about cows. You know about cow urine. If you want to wash your clothes, you need 1 kg cow dung and 2 litres of cow urine. You then need to mix all of this and wash your clothes. Why because, except for cow urine, you do not know anything else. So, do not give us this story.” The Bengaluru-based lawyer claimed this statement was hurtful to Hindu sentiments. However, Raj has clarified in his statements that he is not “anti-Hindu”. “I am anti-Modi… anti-Hegde, anti-Amit Shah,” he said during a session at the India Today South conclave. “According to me, they are not Hindus. (Former Union minister) Anantkumar Hegde, who says he wants to wipe out an ‘ism’, a religion from the face of this earth, cannot be a Hindu,” he said.
Sanatana Dharma: Last September, Raj filed a police complaint against a YouTube channel alleging a death threat over his comments on ‘Sanatana Dharma’. He made the remarks amid the controversy surrounding Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remarks about ‘Sanatana Dharma’. Raj had said: “People speaking aggressively on ‘Sanatana Dharma’ and Hindutva are not Hindus. They are contractors of Hindutva. Such statements are made for political ill-intentions. People must understand the motive behind such statements, I hope they will.” He made the remarks while addressing writers and artists in Kalaburagi, as reported by Hindustan Times. An India Today report also quoted him as saying that “this (Sanatana Dharma) is a dengue fever that needs to be eliminated”.
The Kashmir Files: In February 2023, Prakash Raj dubbed Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ — a movie that seeks to depict the persecution of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley in the run-up to the exodus three decades ago — a “nonsense” and “propaganda” film. Vivek Agnihotri hit back by calling Raj an “urban Naxal”. The film’s star Anupam Kher criticised Raj’s comments too.
Bollywood roles: In May 2018, Raj told ThePrint that Bollywood hadn’t offered him a role since October 2017, when he began speaking out against Modi. “There is no problem (with the film industry) in the south, but there has been no offer from the Hindi film industry since I began speaking out,” Raj was quoted as saying. A January 2019 report in ThePrint noted that Raj had been a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi government ever since journalist Gauri Lankesh, a long-time friend of his, was shot dead on 5 September 2017, allegedly by Hindu radicals.