Actor Gajendra Chauhan occupied a spot on the trending list after he shared a picture of himself holding a trophy and wrote, “Honoured. I have been awarded Legend Dada Saheb Phalke award 2021 in Mumbai for my work in Indian Film Industry. Thanks to my well wishers.”

This sent netizens into a frenzy, as they confused the award given by the Krishna Chauhan Foundation with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the nation’s highest honour for cinema, bestowed by the Indian government, and ended up trolling the actor.

“What? This is crazy, why did you get this? What have you done? Sharam ho toh return kardo,” read a tweet, while another quipped, “Either it’s a parody award or... they’ve reduced the award to a parody!”

All this left Chauhan astonished, as he had “clearly mentioned” the award’s name in his tweet. “Had people read it carefully, this confusion wouldn’t have happened. I can’t go around explaining and clearing the confusion… If they had a doubt, they could have asked instead of calling it fake or duplicate,” he rues.

The 64-year-old isn’t taking this criticism seriously. “Whether an award is big or small, it’s a way to appreciate your work. Maine apne ghar pe toh banaya nahin hai na award. It recognises work I’ve done, including (TV show) Mahabharat, and pushes me to do better,” he says.

Among others, filmmaker Munish Bhardwaj is also amazed at the case of mistaken identity. He tweeted, “Incredibly smart people falling for that Gajju tweet about some bulls**t award he got.”

Talking to us, Bhardwaj says, “So many people started slamming him, saying he doesn’t deserve the award, which I agree with… But my tweet was for the people who didn’t know the difference between the awards. It was like, the joke is on you if you think he got the country’s highest honour.”