Everybody loves Rashmika Mandanna

Two days before this interview, Rashmika Mandanna was at a promotional event for her recently released film, Kuberaa, in Mumbai. Co-star Nagarjuna, the veteran Telugu actor, brought in a sense of perspective on the relative star power of those on stage, which also included actor Dhanush, a veteran of Tamil cinema, alongside Jim Sarbh and Dalip Tahil. “You’ve seen her [Rashmika’s] filmography over the last three years. It’s outstanding. None of us gave 2,000-3,000-crore films like her. She’s the one who’s beaten all of us.”

Mandanna has had hits—year-defining blockbusters that bring people to the theatres in the era of couch-denting—across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi cinema. We’re referring to Pushpa: The Rise, which became the highest grossing film of 2021, when we were still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was followed by Animal (2023), and Pushpa 2: The Rule (2024). Before that, there was her debut with Kirik Party (2016) and Anjani Putra (2017) in Kannada, and the Tollywood hits Geetha Govindam (2018), Dear Comrade (2019) and Sarileru Neekevvaru (2022). Even in male-centric films characterised by macho chest-thumping—a prominent feature in  ‘pan-India films’—Mandanna’s characters have been the moral centre. Cast in point: Pushpa’s Srivalli.

How did a girl from Kodagu become India’s “national crush”?

On the morning of the shoot, in Mumbai’s Snowball Studios, photographer Bikramjit Bose has decided to harness the natural light streaming in from the skylights for the tailoring-meets-sportswear theme. In a head-to-toe Gucci look, Mandanna, in between meeting the camera lens in the eye, tends to have her face up to the skylight, like a cat basking in the sun.

Later, the shoot moves to another part of the studio. As the sliding doors are opened for light and air, and we’re all fanning ourselves with palms, notebook sleeves, and lunchbox lids, and amidst shouts of “aane de, aane de, aane de” from the drivers trying to park their cars a few metres away, Mandanna looks unbothered in her cinched-waist leather (!) Balenciaga blazer. When the shoes pinch and everyone’s scrambling for a shoe horn, she slips out of them. Like us, she too likes to slide on slippery floors in sock-clad feet.

Between that shot and the green room 15 minutes later, one sock goes missing. “Fashunnn,” she deadpans as she stares at her asymmetrically clad feet when she finally sits down.

Mandanna grew up in Karnataka’s Kodagu district (formerly Coorg), moving to Mysore after class 10. “It was a big city compared to my small town back in Coorg. That in itself was a step up,” she recalls. As a fellow small-town girl, I tell her I can relate. “Yeah! So, we all have that for our college degree. It’s not the US plans that we have; it’s just the next step that we take.” Mysore soon paved the path for Bengaluru, where she graduated with a degree in English Literature, Psychology, and Journalism from MS Ramaiah College of Arts Science & Commerce.

It was while in college in Bengaluru that she took part in the Clean & Clear Fresh Face campaign with the theme ‘Be the Real You’, which led to a modelling career and, eventually, acting. “That [“be the real you”] is something that sat with me very deeply. As a public figure, you’re expected to be a certain way. I’m not. I’m just the way I am. I did try to be proper and media-train myself and things like that. But you know…”

How long did that trial period last, I ask. “Not too long,” she replies, laughing. “I also realised that there are public figures—and then there’s me. There’s this expectation to be a certain way, but I’m also an entertainer. My job here is to entertain people, make people smile, and just give people that little breather in their hard day. I feel that the more original and organic and raw I am, [the more] it gets me into trouble, but I’m at least me. If that’s not your cup of tea, it’s fine, but this is the real me.”

But she does seem like everyone’s cup of tea, which makes one wonder: Maybe in eschewing most of the traditional tropes of media training, she has hit—unintentionally or not—the sweet spot of media training.

Mandanna has over 46 million followers on Instagram, where she shares regular updates on film projects and collaborators, BTS peeks, brand endorsements, and in-betweens. (The latest was a ‘dear diary’ photo dump from a little London trip—shopping at Liberty, waiting at a street corner with her Lady Dior and her Labubu.)

At a promotional event for a film, she’ll gently remind a co-star to address the Kannada fans too with ‘ellarigu namaskara’. Fans are met and acknowledged with finger hearts. Think movie stars sip Evian and fling scripts at assistants who then scramble on their knees rescuing the loose sheets? Think again. At the aforementioned Kuberaa event, Dhanush shared an anecdote from the film’s shoot. “Me and Rashmika shot in a dumpyard for six or seven hours, and Rashmika was fine. I said, ‘What is this [smell]?’ and she said, ‘Sir, I can’t smell anything.’” Call it olfactory adaptation, call it extreme professionalism that leaves no room for offscreen drama, but the incident somewhat explains the respect Mandanna commands from industry colleagues.

The paparazzi, an essential part of celebrity culture in India now, love their “Rashmika ji”; she chats with them, enquires about their well-being, even when groggy and stepping out of a red-eye flight. There’s no tucked-chin, forehead-facing-the-floor brisk walk and penultimate half-wave over the left shoulder before she gets in the car. Does she never have a bad day where she’s feeling less than sociable? Everyone’s allowed one. How is she always so…nice?

“It’s where I come from. I think it’s something that has always been me. Back at home, if I were to be honest, my mum would say, ‘You know, it’s not an easy world out there. So, don’t be nice to everyone. You need to know when to say no.’ Which I’m still learning. But things like being kind, being nice to people are engraved in my personality. That’s something I cannot change. And when we talk about the paparazzi… We’re entertainers. I know all of us are having a hard day. I know life isn’t easy. So, if I can come into your life and make you smile for even 10 seconds or a minute, I’m happy to do that. I will put my feelings aside at this moment because I want you to feel comfortable.”

This year is shaping up to be a big year for Mandanna: It started with Chhaava, the Maratha warrior biopic that hit box-office gold; then came the just-released Kuberaa, directed by Sekhar Kammula; and soon she has The Girlfriend by filmmaker Rahul Ravindran; and horror comedy Thama, directed by Dinesh Vijan, which is slated for a Diwali release. Next year, too, could be a big one; a few days ago, she took to social media to unveil the first look of Mysaa, directed by Rawindra Pulle. In the close-up image, she’s bloody, fierce, raging, and holding what seems like a whip. “Rashmika Mandanna in and as Mysaa” announces the poster, and this might be the pan-India blockbuster with a woman in the lead.

Navigating film industries across Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Mumbai, does she perceive a difference in their respective approaches to filmmaking—and, consequently, her own?

“I’ve realised that the approach to filmmaking in different industries is rather different. That being said, I approach every film as an individual project; I don’t approach it like an industry. So, when the story is narrated to me, sometimes it matters to me. Okay, I am the lead of the film, so what is the graph of the character? That is the majority of the time. But sometimes, you listen to a story as a whole and you want to be a part of it. A beautiful example of that was Chhaava. The title of the film is Chhaava, so you know this film is all about Maharaj Sambhaji. But Yesubai is such a beautiful character. Stories like this you just want to be a part of,” she explains, “But at the same time, I’m doing The Girlfriend. So that is all about this girl. I don’t want to be typecast, so I want to do as many different characters and as many different films as possible.”

Not surprisingly she speaks six languages—Kodava Thakk, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, and English—and, maybe soon, Malayalam.

On the Instagram account @rashmikaru, she shares feel-good affirmations and life lessons in the form of cartoon strips, aided by Ru, the talking sunflower (“Weekends are for soft clothes, hard boundaries, and ignoring everyone who thinks ‘plans?’ is a cute text”). On her forearm is a tattoo that reads ‘Irreplaceable’, which she got on a dare while in college.

There’s the kawaii sweetness again, but do not, even for a moment, forget her serious box-office clout. In between all the shoots and jet-setting, does she have time for pastimes? What does a day off look like?

“I cry for my off days. I have a sister who is 16 years younger to me; she’s about 13 now. And in the last eight years, since I started working, I haven’t seen her grow up. She’s almost my height now, and I couldn’t even see this journey. I’ve realised that we’re always going on and on and on. But recently it just shook me to my core—almost in a sad way—that I’m missing out on so much. I haven’t gone home in one and a half years. I don’t get to see my friends. Earlier, they would at least include you in the plans. Now they don’t even do that. And that’s the sad reality.”

Like us, she, too, is aiming for that elusive work-life balance. “My mum always said, ‘If you want to excel in your professional life, you will have to sacrifice your personal life, and if you want a personal life, you will have to sacrifice your work life.' But I’m someone who will say I will work twice as hard, but I’ll make both of them work. That’s an everyday battle.”

Home beckons often. What does she miss most about Coorg? “So much. I miss my family. I miss the smell in the air. You’re on this road and the coffee beans have been laid out to dry in the sun. I miss all of that. I haven’t had that in a long time.”

Despite this paucity of time, Mandanna is the brand ambassador for the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). When a deepfake video of her was posted on social media platform X back in November 2023, she chose to speak about the dangers of AI, a sentiment that found support from the Indian film industry at large, including actor Amitabh Bachchan. What led her to voice her concerns?

“With AI, there are a lot of positives, but it also comes with a lot of negatives. How much can you control it? When the deepfake incident happened, as a woman who’s a daughter and also an elder sister, it was disturbing. There’s a way that I want to live my life. And when these things, which are not even true, are coming at me, it’s disturbing,” says Mandanna. “When these deepfake images happen to all the girls and boys out there, it’s not their personal choice. I’m the brand ambassador of I4C because a lot more people have to be aware of it. A lot more people need to start understanding what’s true, because these days technology is getting so good. Often, I’m like, ‘Oh wait, I’ve never worn these clothes!’ It’s so confusing. We’re actors—our faces are everywhere, and that is fine. But what about those young girls and boys sitting in a small town? What if they get deepfaked? Their entire community will blame them for things they didn’t do. Today, I have the actors’ community coming together. But if I was a girl back in Coorg, nobody would have listened to me. I have a voice. I can speak. So, I’m speaking for those girls and boys back home.”

It’s a hall of mirrors we’re all grappling with. “I think it just affects you to the point where you’re doubting yourself. You are not confident because AI has this perfect body, perfect mind, perfect everything. We’re humans. We can’t be that. So, it’s playing with a lot of emotions and causing a lot of mental stress.”

The 29-year-old has acted in over two dozen films—a considerable feat considering she made her acting debut only in 2016. If you’ve ever gone through moments of self-doubt and imposter syndrome, you’ve got company. “A couple of years ago, I was doubting myself in terms of whether I’d be able to portray this character. And someone said, ‘If they’re casting you in the film, the director knows what he expects of you, what he wants you to do. So maybe doubt yourself, but don’t doubt his creative vision. He sees something in you that you don’t see in yourself.’ And that actually became true.”

The film was Pushpa, and we all know how that turned out. “That [advice] was something that got me back to solid ground and I was like, okay, I actually can pull off this character,” she recalls.

Imagine Pushpa without you, I say.

She counters, “I can’t imagine me without Pushpa!”

Her most challenging role, though, is one we’re yet to see her in. “Oh my god! Thama. For Thama we really, really put in the work. Till then I thought, okay, I’ve been through it. I’ve seen it all. I’m 24-25 films down. What else can there be? And then Thama comes and you’re like, ‘Oops, I wasn’t ready for that.’ I feel that is going to change people’s perspective of me in a way.”

In less than two hours, there’s another flight to catch. She may be in a hurry soon, but if you run into her at the airport, she will send you a finger heart.

Editorial Direction: Megha Mahindru, Ridhima Sapre. Photography: Bikramjit Bose. Director: Gorkey Patwal. Fashion and Creative Direction: Priyanka Kapadia. Visual and Creative Direction: Jay Modi. Art Direction: Harry Iyer. Bookings Editor: Nikita Moses. Style lead: Naheed Driver. Makeup: Tanvi Chemburkar. Hair: Sourav Roy. DOP: Sainil. Styling Assistant: Tushar (Photo); Kashish Jain (Style), Shreeya Salvi (Makeup), Ameet Mistry (Hair). Production: Imran Khatri Production, Radhika Chemburkar. Artist Management: Parth Mangla. Artist Reputation Management: Spice