Actor Morgan Freeman mistaken for Mandela on Indian billboard photo goes viral

PHOTO In southern India, they’ve
inadvertently been mourning the
loss of actor Morgan Freeman
instead of South Africa’s former
president Nelson Mandela.

TWITTER

In southern India, the owner of a
billboard dedicated to Nelson
Mandela was left red-faced after it
was discovered a photo of actor
Morgan Freeman had been used
instead of the South African anti-
apartheid campaigner.
The sign had been erected on the
side of a road in the southern city
of Coimbatore as part of memorials
across India and the world to Mr
Mandela, who died on December 5.
But Morgan Freeman’s face loomed
large above over smaller images of
Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa
and Mahatma Gandhi.
“We should be proud that we were
part of an era when they lived,”
the Tamil-language condolence
message read.
Cloth merchant Chandrashekhar,
who paid for the board in a private
capacity as a mark of respect to the
former South African leader, said it
was a mistake by the designer.
“We will replace it with the correct
picture of Mandela,” he said,
adding he did not know how the
gaffe happened.
Morgan Freeman played Mandela
in the 2009 film “Invictus”.
A photo of the billboard has been
circulating on social media site,
Twitter.
India declared five days of national
mourning for Mandela, who was
hailed as a “true Gandhian” and a
“great friend” by the country’s
leaders.