Sanjay Dutt picked up the phone on Thursday and led with two words in Marathi: "Pratap bhai, Jai Maharashtra." The call was to Pratap Sarnaik, Maharashtra's transport minister, and it was damage control.

Days earlier, at a Dahi Handi celebration in Thane organised by Sarnaik's Sanskruti Yuva Pratishthan, Dutt had told the minister that despite six years spent in Yerawada jail, he still hadn't managed to pick up Marathi. It landed at a strange moment. Sarnaik has been pushing a broader campaign around the use of Marathi in the state, and Dutt's line, delivered casually in front of a crowd that included Suniel Shetty and cricketer Suryakumar Yadav, didn't read as a joke to everyone watching.

Social media did what social media does. Some users went after Dutt directly. Others turned the comment around and asked a sharper question: is the expectation to learn Marathi only ever aimed at auto and taxi drivers, and not at Bollywood stars who've built careers and homes in the state?

That's the noise Dutt was trying to quiet on Thursday's call. According to the Free Press Journal, he told Sarnaik the Yerawada line was said in jest and that he actually speaks Marathi well. He added that he regretted it if the remark had sent out the wrong message.

Dutt then went further than a simple clarification. He reminded Sarnaik that his own family are Mumbaikars, that he grew up in Maharashtra, and that the state has given him a great deal. He also brought up Bal Thackeray, the late Shiv Sena founder, thanking him for standing by Dutt and his family during a difficult stretch in their lives, a reference to the years when the actor's legal troubles made him a target of intense public scrutiny.

Whether the call closes the matter is a separate question. Dahi Handi events like Sarnaik's Thane gathering sit right at the intersection of Bollywood glamour and Maharashtra's regional-pride politics, and a line that plays as banter on stage doesn't always survive contact with a WhatsApp forward or a Twitter thread the next morning. Sarnaik hasn't put out a public statement responding to Dutt's call, and it's not clear yet if he plans to. For now the story rests on one phone call and a greeting delivered in the language Dutt insists he already knows.