What did Neil Armstrong see soon after he took “a small step” on the moon? A Malayali tea-seller who asked him: “Oru chaya edukatte? (Shall I get you a cup of tea?)”

A pictorial representation that actor and Hindutva bugbear Prakash Raj had shared on social media as a nod to a decades-old joke on the ubiquitous Malayali in the run-up to India’s moon-landing mission soon exploded on him with social media trolls drawing uncharitable associations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, south Indians and scientists.

Prakash had on Sunday evening shared on X (formerly Twitter) a picture of a popular caricature of a lungi-clad Malayali tea-seller mixing the brew. The image was accompanied by a caption in Kannada that translates to: “Breaking News: The image just received from Chandrayaan.”

Prakash confirmed to The Telegraph that the picture was a humorous take on the popular Malayali joke that celebrates the wide presence of the community and keeps cropping up whenever a difficult frontier is conquered as a testimony to the omnipresence of the people of Kerala.

The joke was lost on some social media users who saw in the caricature a tongue-in-cheek reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose personality cult had in his initial days as Prime Minister been built around his self-proclaimed beginnings as a “chaiwala (tea-seller)”.

Prakash shared the image late on Sunday evening. By Monday morning, mainstream media channels and news portals swished their swords at the actor, a trenchant critic of Modi and the Hindutva brand of politics.

Some social media users hurled the choicest expletives in different languages. Others called Prakash “useless”, a “traitor” and everything in between, and accused him of mocking Isro scientists who have worked hard on the Chandrayaan-3 project.

A social media user named Alok interpreted the post as a broadside at K. Sivan, the former Isro chairman who steered the Chandrayaan-2 project that failed in 2019. “South’s actor Prakash Raj is making a dirty joke of South’s scientist K. Sivan wearing a lungi and the country’s achievement Chandrayaan 3. How you people of South can tolerate this???”

Prakash said in reply to a message from The Telegraph on Monday: “Classic example of missing the joke… or they must have actually got it... no comments.”

To a question whether the troll army mistook it as a jibe at Modi, Prakash replied: “Yes.”

Prakash came out with a clarification late on Monday, confirming he was indeed referring to the Armstrong 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.”

The social media onslaught on the actor pushed the hashtag #PrakashRaj to one of the top trends on X by Monday noon.

A recent entrant to the BJP, C.R. Kesavan, said: “You should be very ashamed of yourself for mocking and insulting the selfless contributions of our patriotic scientists like Dr Abdul Kalam, T.K. Anuradha and others. The people of India proudly stand behind #Chandrayaan3.”

Anuradha is a retired Isro scientist who specialised in communication satellites.

There were a few like Rutvik Makwana who were more sober in their reaction. “This is rocket science and the way Isro has progressed we must be proud of them and support them even in worst-case scenario,” reacted the X user.

X user Girish K. urged Prakash to “rectify his mistake”. “Prakash Raj avare (Kannada honorific), I agree you are a very good actor. But the photo you shared doesn’t suit a dignified personality. You have insulted Isro. So please rectify your mistake,” he tweeted in Kannada.

The Sangh parivar has never missed an opportunity to trash Prakash. Students of MV College in Shimoga had in April “purified” the auditorium where Prakash was a participant in a dialogue on cinema, theatre and society.

Workers of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha had sprinkled cow urine to “purify” a wedding hall at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district in January 2018 after the actor addressed a gathering of progressive and Left intellectuals.