DESTINY'S CHILD RASHMIKA MANDANNA

Easily, one of the most versatile young actors in the country, Rashmika Mandanna has already got a slew of blockbusters under her belt. The 28-year-old actor in conversation with Cosmo Editor Pratishtha Dobhal, tells it like it is.

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When the 2014 movie, Birdman, directed by Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu, starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton and Emma Stone (amongst a stellar star cast), won the Academy Award for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, I was fascinated by the effortless POV with which this masterpiece of a film told the story of a once-famous actor, trying to revive his fading career on Broadway.

What does Birdman have to do with Rashmika Mandanna? Edward Norton and his succinct analysis of good acting and what sets apart the MVP (Most Valuable Player) from the LVP (Least Valuable Player). In an exclusive interview with American Film Institute (wayyy back in 2015) Norton spoke of how critical empathy was when it came to being a good actor. This is a quality that must come naturally to Rashmika Mandanna, who has not let language define the kinds of films she has chosen since her debut eight years ago in the Kannada romantic comedy Kirik Party (2016). Since then, she has gone on to star in Telugu action comedies like Sarileru Neekevvaru (2020), Devadas (2018), action drama Dear Comrade (2019) opposite Vijay Deverakonda, Bheeshma (2020), and Sita Raman (2022), as well as a bunch of Tamil action films like Sulthan (2021) and Varisu (2023). Rashmika's meteoric rise was cemented with the record-breaking Telugu blockbuster Pushpa: The Rise (2021) opposite Allu Arjun.

Even though she made her debut in Hindi cinema with Goodbye [directed by Vikas Bahl of Queen fame] opposite Amitabh Bachchan and Neena Gupta in 2022, it was Animal