Senior Bollywood actor Anupam Kher reacts to the paint attack on Sudheendra Kulkarni, chairman of the Observer Research Foundation, and the refusal by the Shiv Sena to allow Pakistani artiste Ghulam Ali's concert in Mumbai.

Kher said, "If anyone had misbehaved with Sudheendra Kulkarni's family would he have invited that person to tea? Mr Kasuri was former foreign secretary.


The case of Ghulam Ali is different, he is an artiste. There are many Pakistani artistes in the film industry."


On writers returning the Sahitya Akademi and the Padma Bhushan awards, Kher said, "Many say my wife is in the BJP so I am critical about academics returning awards, but I'm independent in my views.


"This is politically motivated, it's not like violent incidents are happening in the nation for the 1st time,  I think this is mostly to discredit the PM. If they want to return why not return everything? I have not been allowed to perform my play in Pakistan, I applied many times and the visa wasn't granted. That's fine, I can deal with it."


Kher's wife, Kirron, is a BJP MP from Chandigarh.