Giggly, gorgeous and gearing up for the release of her film Chamak, Rashmika Mandanna is an excited lass and has every reason to be. At 21, not only has the actress managed to steal the hearts of Kannada film buffs, but she has also made her way into Tollywood. In a tête-a-tête with us, the Coorg beauty gets chatty about her films, her beau Rakshit Shetty and more…
Talking about the Simple Suni-directed Chamak, which is all set to hit screens on the 29th of this month, Rashmika says, “I play a married girl in the film. Thanks to the team, I didn’t have to prepare much. It was mostly on-the-spot visualisation and choreography. Working with Ganesh Sir has been a learning experience and working with Suni Sir is like a picnic!”
I look forward to working with them again.”The artiste’s other upcoming Kannada flick is Anjaniputra, in which she’s playing the lead opposite Puneeth Rajkumar. “He’s one of the sweetest people I’ve met. It’s nice to see him being jovial with everyone on the sets and I’d like to work with him a 100 times more,” she smiles. Now that’s she’s also doing a handful of movies in the Telugu industry including one with Tollywood heartthrob Vijay Devarakonda, Rashmika says, “It’s nice to know the mindset of people in different industries. People there are very different from the ones here, but when it comes to work, it’s all the same. I’m just learning and experiencing more. As for the language, I’m working on it and have improved quite a bit in the past eight months.” She also has Chalo with Naga Shaurya on agenda.
While she’s garnered fans and attention after her debut, the actress has also been the target of trolls. “It used to get to me before. When I’d see people trolling other artistes who’ve worked really hard, I used to wonder why anyone would express so much hatred. That’s when I realised that it’s because we’re working so hard, they do this. If we hadn’t worked so hard, they wouldn’t even have known us. I feel like this is an achievement! I’ve spoken to trolls and figured that they have no bad intentions and do it for fun. Now, it really doesn’t matter to me,” she states.
With her personal life being in the limelight constantly, now that she’s engaged to her Kirik Party co-star Rakshit Shetty, how does she deal with the curiosity around them? “When we entered the industry, we wanted that curiosity and people to recognise our work. If people are curious, it’s fine, but when I get weird questions, I just keep quiet,” she quips. When her schedule isn’t chock-a-block, the actor tries to spend as much time as possible with her family and fiance. “I have so little time that I haven’t been able to hangout with my friends in a long while,” she says. As for acting with Rakshit again, she reveals, “We would love to work together soon. We want to surprise you!”
