Javed Akhtar Apologises After Calling Rashmika Mandanna A ‘Tamil Actor’: 'I Stand Corrected'

Rashmika Mandanna often finds herself at the receiving end of social media trolling regarding her Hindi accent and dialogue delivery in Bollywood films. Stepping in to defend her amid the online chatter, Javed Akhtar took to social media to call out what he termed linguistic superiority. However, people started pointing out the actor's roots after he referred to her as a "Tamil actor".

The veteran lyricist has now apologised for the same and admitted that he stands "corrected".

Javed Akhtar Calls Out 'Baseless Linguistic Superiority'

It all started after Javed took a strong stance against trolls who mock non-native speakers for their pronunciation; and challenged critics to speak Tamil before passing judgment on others.

In his post on X (formerly Twitter), Akhtar wrote: "Those who have any problem with the pronunciation of Tamil actor Rashmika should be given a few lines of Tamil, which is the oldest spoken language in the world, and let's see how well they pronounce Tamil. This fake and baseless linguistic superiority is not acceptable."

Those who have any problem with the pronounciation of Tamil actor Rashmika should be given a few lines of Tamil which is the oldest spoken language in the world and let’s see how well they pronounce Tamil . This fake and baseless linguistic superiority is not acceptable.

— Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) October 25, 2026

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Javed Akhtar Apologises

While several users appreciated his intent to shut down linguistic elitism, many were quick to point out the factual error in his post, noting that Rashmika belongs to Karnataka, not Tamil Nadu.

One user wrote to him: "Sir, Rashmika is from Kodagu and is the daughter-in-law of a Telugu family in Telangana. However, appreciate your move to support her."

Another user commented: "You are as ignorant as those who think everyone from South India is a Madrasi and speaks Tamil. Rashmika is from the Kodava community of Karnataka, and the people there speak Kodava and Kannada."

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In response to this, he said, "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. Telgu , Malayalam Kannada is not the issue . If some one speaks our language even with a certain accent we should appreciate that . Btw how many of us speak English with a perfect accent . How would we like if any English man makes fun of us."

Promptly acknowledging the correction, Javed Akhtar first replied, "I stand corrected."

@DexterousRd I stand corrected .

— Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) October 25, 2026