Javed Akhtar recently came out in support of Rashmika Mandanna when she was trolled over her South Indian accent. While doing so, he referred to Rashmika as a Tamil actress, which drew flak from netizens. He has now apologised for his mistake after a social media user pointed out that she is from Karnataka.

Javed Akhtar apologises

When a netizen said, "She is a Kodava from Karnataka, and they speak Kodava and Kannada," Javed replied, "I am sorry, I was wrong. I don’t know her personally, and incidentally, the only film I 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? How would we like it if any Englishman makes fun of us?"