Everyone on India’s social media knows the story by now. Actor Anushka Sharma and her husband, cricketer Virat Kohli, were travelling in a car in Mumbai when they spotted a person throw a piece of plastic on the road from his vehicle. Sharma pulled up next to the culprit, rolled down her window and schooled the man for littering on the roads. Kohli captured the incident on his phone and posted the video (above) on twitter.

Sharma is seen in the video asking the man why he was throwing garbage on the road and scolding him: “Don’t throw garbage on the road. Please be careful. You can’t just throw plastic around like that on the streets. Use a dustbin.”

Inevitably, the video went viral on social media. But, perhaps unexpectedly, the man at the receiving end of the diatribe spoke up too, suggesting that he was the victim. Identifying himself as Arhhan Singh, he admitted to being careless in a Facebook post (below), but went on to criticise Sharma for “ranting and yelling like a crazy roadside person”.

Even Singh’s mother posted on Instagram, defending her son’s actions and criticising those of Sharma and Kohli.

@anushkasharma @virat.kohli The last thing we would want is to get publicity out of your cheap STUNT in the name of CLEANLINESS! You both posted a video for your fans n followers by VIOLATING Basic Rights to privacy &you shamed my son in the video as well in your post content you both may be who you are in your fields, with millions of followers & all the PR backing you... you may be payed for your campaigning or maybe doing it for sheer publicity As a mother,I would like to state that you have not only shamed my son @arhhansingh on social media by not blurring his face, but youve also exposed him to unwanted hostility.... and danger from fanatics for such a small thing that you claim he has done but have no proof of anyways ? I am concerned about my sons SAFTEY !!! how dare you crush somebody’s image/and morale and reputation and expose him to public hate, a boy who is on the verge of starting his ventures, ..just to prove what good citizens you both are to increase your fan following ?How dare you?? If you both really cared or bothered about cleanliness , then you would actively do something about all the garbage in your own lane.. you would make a noise and use your VOICE to urge the municipal authorities to take action atleast in the lane where you live,to start with, which you haven’t . Posting videos of fake bravado just to fool your followers. If your intention was genuine then you would pull over and politely correct the person for littering IF THEY DID in a decent and real manner... and not by displaying such a rude and arrogant attitude, and then posting it for the world to see! You have caused a lot of grief with your post & this is morally and humanitarianly very wrong. You may be #AnushkaSharma or #viraatkohli in your house or on screen & the field...but on the streets you are just a citizen trying to correct another... DO IT WITH KINDNESS ....fear karma . And just FYI , he did not react badly, not coz of who you both are.. we couldnt care less,but only because he has a decent upbringing ! Unlike people like you, who seem to think that you are the empowered ones to talk and treat people as you wish !

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Social media users had a mixed response to the video on social media. Some appreciated the effort of the power-couple, while others reduced it to an act of “attention seeking”.

Kohli responded to the trolls, writing, “Lot of people who don’t have the courage to do something like this find it funny. Everything for people nowadays is meme content. Shame.”