Rukmini Vasanth surprised viewers with her negative turn in last year’s Kantara Chapter 1, which emerged as one of the highest grossing films. For her, it was a decision taken just five years into her acting career. Basking in the praise now, to play a villain as a female actor was daunting, she confesses, especially because the industry has “some pre conceived notions”.
“It was quite a difficult decision at that point. Kantara was a really exciting film to even be offered, obviously. Rishab Shetty sir called me about it, and I was over the moon. Then he said ‘by the way, you are the bad guy!’ I felt overwhelmed as there are pre conceived notions you hear around you. It’s not like anyone consciously tells you ‘you don’t do this kind of roles’ or ‘do only this kind of role’… but you hear that one should always stay in a particular kind of zone. So it felt little stressful,” shares the 29-year-old, whose casting in Yash’s Toxic was announced recently, after months of speculation.
She continues, “To kind of step out of that (stress) and decide ‘This is an integral project, I would like to be involved in whatever capacity, even if it’s the antagonist’… that step was terrifying before it was taken. And then I didn’t think about it anymore for a year, until we got closer to the time of release where those anxieties popped up again. Yes, it had made me a much better human, experienced actor, but is this going to affect the rest of my work?”
Rukmini had nothing to fear because she was praised for her negative turn once the film released. She said people preferred to speak about her ‘range’ as an actor, “People were appreciating the fact that female actors can take on films and roles with multiple shades. That has been very encouraging. Once the audience likes it, you don’t need to stress that much.”