The billboard was erected on the side of a road in Coimbator, New Delhi.
Morgan Freeman played Mandela in 2009 film Invictus which is probably how the mistake arose.
'We should be proud that we were part of an era when they lived,' read the condolence message on the board in Tamil.
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,' the merchant, who uses one name, told AFP by telephone from Chennai, adding that he did not know how the gaffe occurred.
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