Rashmika Mandanna is grateful to Puneeth Rajkumar for inspiring her to believe in her craft and expand her horizons

Rashmika Mandanna has often been at the receiving end of horrendous trolling for not giving due credit to the Kannada film industry, which served as a stepping stone for her to venture into Tamil, Telugu and Hindi cinema. From being one of the most loved upcoming actresses in Sandalwood at one point, she has fallen from grace and how, and all because of her perceived lack of gratitude to the team of her debut film, Kirik Party. The vitriol on social media is such that there’ve been boycott calls, not only for the actress in Kannada cinema, but any of her work coming to Karnataka, which, it is believed to have impacted the prospects of her most recent film with Vijay, Varisu. It was also rumoured that the team of Pushpa may look at replacing her for the sequel if the hate for her does not subside.

Amid all this, there appears to be some effort at course correction from Rashmika’s end, as was apparent in a recent interview, wherein she admitted to having made mistakes in the past and that she was looking at rectifying them as well. During the course of the conversation, Rashmika made it a point to highlight Power Star Puneeth Rajkumar changed her perspective towards her craft. Rashmika did Anjaniputra with Puneeth in 2017, and she says that the Power Star believed in her work and craft far more than she did at that point. In fact, Rashmika thought that she’d gotten as far as she did then by virtue of luck. Puneeth instilled confidence in the actress, telling her that she isn’t fully aware of what she is capable of. He told her that if she focuses on her work, she can do anything in this world. Rashmika admits that it is only after working with Puneeth that she began to look at her career with a broader perspective. The actress says that she is immensely grateful to Puneeth, because today, she is working in four different industries and constantly surprising herself.