Exclusive! I am so urban that being Rathnan Prapancha’s Benni was a challenge: Vainidhi Jagdish

Who would have thought that ultra-fashionable Bengaluru girl Vainidhi Jagdish, the daughter of filmmaker Vijayalakshmi Singh and actor Jai Jagdish, could be transformed into a langa-davani clad hudugi from the north of Karnataka? Well, filmmaker Rohit Padaki (of Dayavittu Gamanisi fame) did, and he says the actress is quite the revelation as Benni in his film Rathnan Prapancha, which releases on Prime Video on October 22.

Vainidhi is paired with Pramod, another actor that Rohit is mighty impressed with. The actress, we are told was made to undergo extensive workshops to get into the skin of her character, including the body language and spoken dialect. So, we asked her how the experience was.

“I am so urban that being Benni was the most challenging thing for me. In my debut, Yaana, I just had to be myself. But here, in Rathnan Prapancha, I had to be someone else and change the body language, the clothes and the way she talks and behaves. I couldn’t be the modern-day woman that I am in reality. Even though the character is considered modern and bubby for that city, she is still a halli hudugi. Rohit sir was so particular about the presentation of my character, even with minute details, like the way small strands of hair would fall on or near my face, how much kajal to apply, what accessories to wear, etc. The direction department decided everything about Benni,” says Vainidhi.

Although it was challenging, the young actress adds that she enjoyed the process of becoming Benni. “I just surrendered myself to the team and let them decide how they want to present me, right from the moment Rohit sir asked me to audition for the role. In fact, it happened really fast. Rohit sir asked me to send across an audition video and I was selected almost immediately. After that, though, we had workshops, especially for the dialect, for which we had teachers from Hubballi. It was not easy, but the whole team was very supportive,” she says.

The film, Vainidhi adds, also gave her the opportunity to work with “great co-actors”. “When you have such brilliant talent with you, they add so much value to every scene that you also end up doing your best. I not only enjoyed doing this role, but also learnt quite a bit. Honestly, after Yaana, I thought I would get similar roles, but I am so happy that the team of Rathnan Prapancha, especially director Rohit, and the producers, Karthik Gowda and Yogi G Raj, gave me this opportunity,” she signs off.