diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/lineinfile_exc_fix.yml b/changelogs/fragments/lineinfile_exc_fix.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..08002217af0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/lineinfile_exc_fix.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - lineinfile - fix not subscriptable error in exception handling around file creation
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/lineinfile.py b/lib/ansible/modules/lineinfile.py
index 1fa50c881d9..20a3990efe7 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/lineinfile.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/lineinfile.py
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ import tempfile
 
 # import module snippets
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import AnsibleModule
-from ansible.module_utils._text import to_bytes, to_native
+from ansible.module_utils._text import to_bytes, to_native, to_text
 
 
 def write_changes(module, b_lines, dest):
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ def present(module, dest, regexp, line, insertafter, insertbefore, create,
             try:
                 os.makedirs(b_destpath)
             except Exception as e:
-                module.fail_json(msg='Error creating %s Error code: %s Error description: %s' % (b_destpath, e[0], e[1]))
+                module.fail_json(msg='Error creating %s (%s)' % (to_text(b_destpath), to_text(e)))
 
         b_lines = []
     else: