At the Mumbai promotions of Ek Din, Sai Pallavi spoke with refreshing honesty, admitting this was her first public attempt at speaking Hindi and that she is still learning.
She delivered a few lines clearly, while relying mostly on English to express herself. The moment felt sincere and unforced.
Her humility, warmth, and respectfulness stood out, and many appreciated her effort rather than focusing on what she lacked.
Yet, a section of social media quickly turned critical, questioning her casting as Sita.
Some comments read, “Meet Sai Pallavi: Can't speak basic words of Hindi, Now she's playing Sita Mata in Ramayana, Compared the Indian Army with the Pakistani Army. Do they smoke before casting these kinds of so called actors in a 4000cr movie, who can't even differentiate between chahta and chahti”.
Another tweet stated, “What was Nitesh Tiwari even thinking while casting Sai Pallavi for Sita maa's role who can't even speak proper Hindi? Horrendous casting man”.
The backlash, however, completely misses the point. The Ramayana was originally written in Sanskrit, not modern Hindi. Any portrayal of that era would naturally use languages far older than the Hindi spoken today.
Reducing an entire performance to whether the actors speak fluent modern Hindi is shallow and foolish, it completely ignores history and the real essence of acting.
It also shows the usual pattern of mindless reactive trolling, where any sense of nuance gets conveniently ignored.
Meanwhile, Ek Din, directed by Sunil Pandey and backed by Aamir Khan, Mansoor Khan, and Aparna Purohit, stars Sai Pallavi alongside Junaid Khan.
A remake of the Thai film One Day, it follows a man who finally gets a chance to live out his wish of spending a day with the woman he loves. The film is releasing in May 1.