Exclusive! Avantika Shetty’s next is a Hindi political drama for OTT

Yesterday, when RangiTaranga and Rajaratha fame Avantika Shetty tweeted words of appreciation for Rakshit Shetty’s 777 Charlie, there was an outpouring of love for the actress from fans who’d thought that she’d quit the industry and were happy to see her again. “After Rajaratha, I had taken a short break to focus on re-establishing my contacts in showbiz back home in Mumbai. Then the pandemic struck and life’s just beginning to return to normalcy,” she says.

Back when Avantika Shetty decided to move to Karnataka and do a Kannada film, she left behind a happening career in Hindi television. The film, RangiTaranga, was the sleeper hit of the year and propelled everyone involved with it to instant fame, including director-actor duo Anup and Nirup Bhandari. The Mumbai-based actress then did a couple more Kannada films, including another with the Bhandari brothers, Rajaratha, before returning for a second stint in television with a special role in Meri Dad Ki Dulhan.

“Shortly after the pandemic struck and I got involved in rescue and rehabilitation of stray and abandoned pet animals, which is an ongoing process for me. My absence from Kannada movie circles, though, had people wondering if I had quit the industry and moved back to Mumbai. That was never the case. I was just looking at rebuilding my contact network back home to explore opportunities here, as I had left it all behind way back in 2015. Since the pandemic, I have done a couple of short films, meant for the festival circuit and am currently shooting for a Hindi web show,” she explains.

Directed by Gaurav Prem Shri, the show by ABN Co. Productions, is a political drama in which Avantika is paired with Chandan Anand as his wife. “I am also in talks for a Hindi film and that should come through soon,” she says.