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In what was an otherwise perfectly normal interview with rising star Ali Raza, hosts Nadia Khan and Zohaib Hassan slipped in a rather odd question about whether the actor was really from Lahore. They based this on his accent — or lack of one — when speaking Urdu.

Raza made an appearance on the show Rise & Shine on Thursday, where host Hassan said the he sounded like he was from Karachi. We’re not sure whether this was supposed to be a compliment or a statement.

Nadia Khan was quick to correct her co-host when he — seemingly as a joke — asserted Raza was “our boy from Karachi”. The actor clarified he was, in fact, from Lahore.

Raza then went on to say his diction was “clean” or “saaf” when it came to Urdu, but agreed with the hosts that people in his hometown had a particular way of speaking. He said his Urdu had always been “saaf” as he grew up around people who spoke the language fluently.

“Look, educated people with good accents do live in Lahore, if you sit with them, you’ll develop one too. If you spend time with people who speak Urdu with a Punjabi accent, you’ll pick that up,” the actor told Hassan and Nadia.

He said his friends and family all spoke Urdu very clearly, so fluency in the language had never been much of an issue.

After clarifying that Punjabi sounded great in a Lahori accent, the show moved right on to Raza’s friend Khushhal Khan’s recent wedding to Ramsha Khan and whether the Leader star knew of the secretive event.

He said he did know, but wasn’t able to attend due to scheduling conflicts. He said he was “very happy for them” and that he liked how they had an “understanding” and decided to get married.

As for himself, the actor joked he was going to observe Khushhal first, then make a decision. “For now, I’ll watch my friend to see how it is, see the whole process. That’s how I got into acting as well.”

He said he had been approached by a lot of potential suitors, but he wasn’t looking to tie the knot just yet.

Later in the programme, Nadia asked the Leader star if he faced any pressure from his parents to get married and settle down. He said there was no pressure at all. “They asked me once, ‘What’s your plan?’ I told them I’ll let them know when there was one.”

While the rest of the interview was mostly benign and Raza’s views on marriage are pretty reasonable, we can’t help but feel the bit about accents was very random. We’re not actually sure why it was brought up at all.

Languages are tools of communication and when people learn languages, accents naturally slip in. We’re not sure what point they were trying to make, praising Raza’s ‘accent’ or the lack thereof, but it didn’t land the way they likely wanted.