Veteran screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar and Madhoo extended his support to actor Rashmika Mandanna after she was trolled over her Hindi pronunciation and South Indian accent.Akhtar shared a post on his X handle on Jattvibeday and said “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“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,” he wrote.Madhoo shared a video on her Instagram handle as she backed the actor. “Hi everyone, in the ‘I am in love series’, the next one is dropping right now. I recently watched Rashmika Mandanna’s episode on ‘Koffee With Karan’ and the way she dealt with her accent criticism, I just loved it,” the actor said in the video.“She laughs about it, she accepts it, she owns it. I am a South Indian and I have the South Indian accent and she is so cool about it. And then she says I have a desire to be a Karan Johar actor and then she laughs and says ‘But you know what, I will allow him to use the dubbing artist’. She was so cool about it.”The actor, who is also a South Indian recalled when she stepped into the acting industry and said she was afraid of the judgement.“I got an Urdu teacher and I bettered myself in Hindi and anything and everything so that I don’t get caught out in an accent. If anyone spotted even a bit of accent in my tone, I would get all flustered and I would work harder at it. I felt very proud when people would say your Hindi is better than ever Hindi wala.”“So that was my journey but today I am so proud to say I am a South Indian and if I do make a mistake in the Hindi language and if my accent does have a thickness of a South Indian, I am ok with it but it took me all of 30 years to come here,” she added.“I am proud to be a South Indian with the south Indian accent and I it took me 30 years to get here but Rashmika you’re already there and I love that about you in the recent interview I saw of Yours so great power to you and stay the star that you are … #madhoo #rashmika_mandana,” she wrote in the caption.Mandanna has often been trolled over her Hindi pronunciation in films. However, her recent appearance at Karan Johar’s “Koffee With Karan” season 9 fueled trolls again after she said she is an actor from the South and will have the accent. She added it is “unreasonable to think otherwise”.The filmmaker asked the actor if she was ever bothered by the criticism. “I didn’t have an issue with that because they said I had a South Indian accent, but I am from the South of India. So I am going to have an accent,” she said.Mandanna attended the show alongside her husband and actor Vijay Deverakonda.The actor started acting in 2016 after featuring in the Kannada film “Kirik Party”, which also starred Rakshit Shetty. She has also worked in Telugu and Tamil films.The actor made her Hindi debut in 2022.She recently featured in “Ranabaali” alongside Vijay. The film is set against the backdrop of British colonial rule in the Rayalaseema region. The film draws from historical accounts, oral histories and lesser-known episodes from the period between 1854 and 1878.Mandanna featured as Jayamma in the film.