Veteran actor Anupam Kher on Monday addressed the resurfacing of a six-year-old video in which fellow actor Naseeruddin Shah had called him a “clown”, claiming that social media trolls revived the clip in an attempt to target him after his recent remarks on the reported theft of donations at the Ayodhya Ram Temple.In a video shared on Instagram, Kher alleged that an “ecosystem” was trying to discredit him because his views did not align with a particular narrative.”Some people didn’t like what I said because it didn’t fit their agenda. They wanted to create a narrative and started looking for ways to target and troll me… When they had nothing else, they dug up a six-year-old video of Naseeruddin Shah, hoping to damage my reputation,” he said.Kher added that he and Shah had long moved past the episode, saying the two had “hugged each other and moved on.””I want to say this openly: whatever I have achieved, I have earned through my own hard work. I have risen from the ground up with my values. What exactly are you trying to make me afraid of?… Keep doing what you want. I will continue to stand by the truth,” he said.The controversy resurfaced after Kher’s comments in an interview on the reported theft of donations at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Reacting to the incident, Kher described it as “a very, very minor thing” when compared with the historical destruction and looting of temples during the Mughal era. While he called the alleged theft unfortunate, he argued that it should not be equated with large-scale attacks on temples in history.His remarks triggered a sharp debate on social media, with supporters backing his historical comparison and critics accusing him of trivialising the alleged theft.Amid the backlash, an old interview of Naseeruddin Shah resurfaced online in which the veteran actor dismissed Kher’s political views, saying they should not be taken seriously.”Someone like Anupam Kher is very vocal. I don’t think he needs to be taken seriously. He is a clown,” Shah had said, while also claiming that many of Kher’s contemporaries from the National School of Drama and the Film and Television Institute of India could attest to what he described as Kher’s “sycophantic nature”.When Shah’s remarks first emerged years ago, Kher had responded in a video on X, saying Shah had “spent his entire life in frustration despite achieving so much”.”If you can criticise Dilip Kumar sahab, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Shah Rukh Khan and Virat Kohli, then I’m sure I’m in great company,” Kher had said.He had also accused Shah of failing to distinguish “between what is right and what is wrong” because of “the substances you have been taking all these years”, before ending the video by saying, “May God bless you. I have always prayed for your well-being and will continue to do so.”With his latest Instagram post, however, Kher sought to draw a line under the old exchange, maintaining that he and Shah had already reconciled and accusing trolls of reviving a settled controversy to malign him.