Bollywood actor Aamir Khan on Monday said that he has never thought about leaving the country, and insisted that he was “born in India and will die in India”. Khan was speaking at an event to mark the 10th anniversary of his film Rang De Basanti, in which nationalism was a major theme.

The actor was referring to comments he had made in November at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence for Journalism awards on the intolerance debate. He had caused a furore after he said that his wife Kiran Rao had discussed going away from India because she felt unsafe in the country. Khan at the time had said that it was “disastrous” that such a thought had crossed her mind, but this was widely misinterpreted to mean that he wanted to emigrate, and was thus unpatriotic.

On Monday, Khan once again attempted to downplay the criticism, saying: “Some people could understand me and some couldn’t. Those who are hurt, I can understand their feelings. I would have been hurt had I been in their place because they were told something that was not true.” Khan clarified that he never said that he wanted to leave and both he and Rao were here to stay.