Anupam Kher has recently found himself in the limelight and not for the right reasons. When asked about the Ram Mandir donation theft, many netizens opined that Kher tried to downplay the issue because of his perceived closeness with the Central government.

Kher had opined that the issue was not as big as it is made out to be. He gave a clean chit to the government and believed that the scam was done by few greedy people.

“There was looting in temples when the Mughals destroyed our temples.
There was looting when Mughal rulers killed Brahmins and collected their sacred threads (janeu), gathering them into piles and weighing them by the maund. There was looting when many Mughal emperors came here and took away valuables from temples.
There was looting when women were raped within temple premises. That is a much bigger issue. If we have overcome that, then I think this is a very, very minor thing—not an error, but the greed of a few individuals.”

— Anupam Kher had said recently on the Ram Mandir Donation Theft Scandal

After Kher’s remarks went viral on Twitter, an old video of Naseeruddin Shah has resurfaced and is doing the rounds on social media, where he is criticizing Anupam Kher. The video is 6 years old and was given to The Wire.

In the video, the host says to Naseeruddin Shah that there are some in the industry who are vocal and who speak against what they think is discriminatory politics. Replying to the host, Naseruddin Shah said the following.

“Yeah, they are on Twitter. I am not on Twitter. These people are Twitterati. And I really wish they make up their mind in what they believe in. Someone like Anupam Kher here has been very vocal. I don’t think he needs to be taken seriously. He’s a clown. Any number of his contemporaries from NSD and FTII can attest to his sycophantic nature. It’s in his blood, he can’t help it. The others who are opposing it should really decide what they want to say and don’t remind us of our responsibilities.”

— Naseeruddin Shah said in the interview to The Wire Back in 2020

Anupam Kher has been receiving lots of criticism for his comments, where he downplayed the recent donation theft in the Ram Mandir temple. Many netizens have shared the old clip from 2014 and are resonating their emotions with what Naseeruddin Shah said about Anupam Kher in the viral footage.

When the footage became viral in 2020, Kher had responded sharply to the veteran actor, saying that Naseeruddin Shah is “spent his entire life in frustration” despite being a successful actor. Kher also made a big claim back then that “the substances” Shah had consumed over the years had affected his judgment.