Rashmika Mandanna

Nayandeep Rakshit: Did you have those moments when you were reading? Because you are also extremely sensitive as a human being. Did you have those moments when it was being narrated to you?

Rashmika Mandanna: While reading the script, of course, I watched it as a film in my head, and it sort of like went as a breeze. But while shooting for it, of course, it took a toll on, you know, the crying has to come from somewhere, and a film like this, you can't really cry or laugh or feel emotional, from just an actor point, you know? You need to take it from your heart.

So I sort of like, that took me a little, like Vikas sir says, like every shot of me when I was supposed to cry, I would go. So there's like a meter that I have while, you know, crying generally. I reach to the fourth and the fifth, you know, point, and post the fifth point, there's no, like, stopping.

I'll just end up crying, like, nonstop, right? So, Vikas sir was like, “Every time you reach that fifth point, I have to stop you,” because he figured out on the second and the third time he made me do it, and he's like, “I can't take this girl crying because, you know, it's really painful.” So, just like that, while shooting, it was a little, you know, coming from the heart, and it was exhausting.

And you know, I don't like getting too emotional on set because I just feel like the actors and the director and the crew makes the energy on set, and I don't like it going down in any which way. But while reading the script, though, it sort of went like a breeze, and I love the concept.

I wanted to do a film like this, and I wanted it to be one of my firsts, Nayandeep Rakshit: How do you handle death and grief in life? Is there a defense that you already found in life? Rashmika Mandanna: I think the closest person that I've lost so far is my grandmom, who sort of like brought me up because my parents were sort of like traveling when every time I was back home when I was a child.

And I lost her just before I got into the industry, like debuted with my first film. And she was someone, she was the closest to me in my family, and I'd lost her, and I've realized after that, my dealing with death is extremely different than what I thought it would be. I thought I'd be like, you know, drained in tears, like, you know, just like not eating, not, you know, just disconnected from the world.

But surprisingly, I was angry. The only time I genuinely got angry from my heart was when she passed. I was like, I didn't shed a tear.

It was just like so much anger which had built up, and I was like, “No, this is... ugh,” you know? It was that. But that's the only time I dealt with anger as an anger, you know?

So that was my defense, I think, with grief and death, and everything. And I don't know, like maybe tomorrow something else would happen, and I don't know how I'll react to it because this is something which you generally don't think about.

Nayandeep Rakshit: We don't know. Rashmika Mandanna: But every time I of course, there was a part of me when I was shooting for the film and I was like, "How am I gonna deal about my parents or my parents not being here anymore?" And I don't know. I feel numb about it.