Chaithra J Achar: Marnami is a gangster drama, but there’s also a nice love story | Exclusive

Chaithra J Achar has not had a release since 2024’s Blink , but she’s been very busy shooting for various projects, which, she hopes, will all release in quick succession. For starters, there is 3BHK with Siddarth on July 4, 2025, which marks her official Tamil debut, although Sapta Sagaradaache Ello Side B had a Tamil-dubbed release. She follows that up with another Tamil project called My Lord, which is also ready for release.

Chaithra J Achar: There is a thin line between loving or hating Deeksha

Back home, the Talendanda actress’ next will be Marnami, a film in which she is paired with Ritvvikk Mathad, whose claim to fame is on TV with serials like Anuroopa and Gini Rama. “I play Deeksha in Marnami, which is directed by debutant Rishith Shetty; the first look of my character was revealed recently. Marnami is what people in Mangaluru call Dasara. The film is, of course, set in the coastal region, and is a gangster tale. While the major plot revolves around the gang wars on a certain turf, there’s a nice love story that’s central to the film and that’s where my character comes in,” she says.

Although Ritvvikk has done a couple of films earlier, he’s widely known as a TV actor. “He is very sensible and hard-working actor and I was very impressed by his work in Marnami. There was not even a 0.1% of the exaggeration required for TV. The story is also very nice and my character is quite interesting. There is a thin line between liking Deeksha and hating her, which has been written very well and executed as well,” explains Chaithra, adding that Charan Raj, who’d done the music for Sapta Sagaradaache Ello, is on board as composer for Marnami.

The actress says that Marnami was destined to be hers. “When the offer first came to me, I liked it but was busy shooting for my Tamil and didn’t have dates. So, they went around approaching other actors and at some point, decided to check in with me again. In fact, it was Charan who told me about the team again and their interest in having me onboard. He said it would be nice if I did the film, given that it is a nice story, so I decided to have a second narration and I still liked it. I told them that I had limited dates and that they’d have to manage with that, which they did,” says the Toby actress.