Veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar has come out in support of Rashmika Mandanna amid criticism over her accent and pronunciation, but his defence has triggered a fresh debate online. Akhtar took to X on October 25 to condemn the trolling, urging critics to consider how well they could pronounce words in a language they did not speak. However, his description of Rashmika as a “Tamil actor” drew backlash, with social media users pointing out that she is a Kodava from Karnataka.

Javed Akhtar’s post on Rashmika Mandanna sparks backlash

In his post, 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.”