Veteran lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar recently defended Rashmika Mandanna after she was trolled online over her Hindi pronounciation. However, he incorrectly referenced to her as a ‘Tamil actor’, which led to netizens explaining that she is a Kannadiga with roots in Kodagu, Karnataka, and has primarily worked in Telugu films. Now, Akhtar has apologised for his mistake in a tweet, stating that he doesn’t know her personally.

Taking to his X handle, Javed Akhtar accepted the inaccuracy, after being reminded of her linguistic background. “I am sorry I was wrong I don’t know her personally and incidentally the only film have seen of hers was in Tamil but Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada is not the issue. If someone speaks our language, even with a certain accent, we should appreciate that. Btw, how many of us speak English with a perfect accent?…