diff --git a/django/conf/project_template/manage.py-tpl b/django/conf/project_template/manage.py-tpl
index 71d47d97ec..41309844e0 100755
--- a/django/conf/project_template/manage.py-tpl
+++ b/django/conf/project_template/manage.py-tpl
@@ -7,9 +7,16 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     try:
         from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line
     except ImportError:
-        raise ImportError(
-            "Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and available "
-            "on your PATH environment variable? Did you forget to activate a "
-            "virtual environment?"
-        )
+        # The above import may fail for some other reason. Ensure that the
+        # issue is really that Django is missing to avoid masking other
+        # exceptions on Python 2.
+        try:
+            import django
+        except ImportError:
+            raise ImportError(
+                "Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and "
+                "available on your PYTHONPATH environment variable? Did you "
+                "forget to activate a virtual environment?"
+            )
+        raise
     execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)