MUMBAI: Actress Madhoo has come out in support of Rashmika Mandanna following the latter's remarks about her South Indian accent while in a recent episode on Koffee with Karan.
She said she admired the actress for embracing her identity and handling criticism with confidence.
In a video shared on social media as part of her ‘I Am in Love’ series, Madhoo spoke about watching Rashmika's appearance on filmmaker Karan Johar's talk show ‘Koffee with Karan’ and praised the actress for the way she responded to criticism of her accent.
“I recently saw Rashmika Mandanna's show ‘Koffee with Karan’, and the way she dealt with her accent criticism, I just loved it. She laughs about it, she accepts it, she owns it, calls herself a South Indian and says, ‘So, I am a South Indian and I have a South Indian accent.’ And she's so cool about it and I am really in love with that,” Madhoo said.
She further added, “Many, many years ago, when I became a Hindi film actor, I was so afraid of the judgements I was getting, and thought I would get, for being a South Indian. I worked harder and harder. I tried to get an Urdu teacher and bettered myself in Hindi, doing anything and everything so that I wouldn’t get caught out because of my accent.”
“If anybody even spotted a little bit of an accent in my tone, I would get all flustered and work harder at it. I felt very proud when people would say that my Hindi was even better than that of a Hindi speaker. That was my journey. Today, I am so proud to say that I am a South Indian. If I make a mistake in Hindi or my accent has the thickness of a South Indian, I am okay with it. But it took me 30 to 35 years to get here,” said Madhoo.
She added, “Rashmika, great power to you, girl! I just loved that you own it, laugh about it, and you are truly a star.”
Along with the video, the actress captioned it as, “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 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 ...”
The actress's comments come after veteran lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar also came out in support of Rashmika amid criticism of her Hindi pronunciation.
Taking to X, (formerly Twitter), Javed 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.”
The discussion follows Rashmika's appearance on ‘Koffee with Karan’, where she spoke about being trolled for her accent, language and performances.
The actress, explaining why she did not consider her South Indian accent a problem, said, “I particularly 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. It's unreasonable to think otherwise.”