Rashmika Mandanna opened about crying over trolling for kiss scene with Vijay Deverakonda

She might be called the ‘national crush’ now and loved by all, but there was a phase in Rashmika Mandanna’s career when she faced incessant trolling and hate on social media. This took place right after her 2019 film Dear Comrade, in which she starred with Vijay Deverakonda. The two actors shared a kiss on screen in the film, which led to them being trolled for weeks. Rashmika has now opened up on the episode, saying it was painful.

Dear Comrade, directed by Bharat Kamma, is a Telugu romantic action-drama that follows a dejected Chaitanya aka Bobby (Vijay Deverakonda), who is unable to come to terms with the fact that his girlfriend Lilly (Rashmika) doesn’t want him in her life anymore. The kiss scene between the two actors became a talking point online with many trolls attacking both of them, calling it ‘obscene’ and terming them ‘publicity hungry’.

Speaking with Zoom, Rashmika recalled that time, saying, “The second it happened, it carried on for months. It was this, that, whatever. And there were so many painful moments happening and painful things I was reading, I was seeing. I have been through that. And I would have constant dreams where you know you feel like you are the only one and everyone has turned their back on you and you are calling out for them. That was a constant dream, I don’t know what it was and I don’t know how it was. I would wake myself up with such dreams and cry myself to bed, or even wake up crying.”

The actor added that she could not even confide in her family about how she was feeling as she did not want to make them sad as well. “That was an extremely hard part that I had to go through. Your family is not used to it so you can’t even open up to your family because my parents would never want to see me sad. Conveying something like this would really make them sad,” she added.

Rashmika is currently gearing up for the release of her first Hindi film Goodbye, which also stars Amitabh Bachchan. The film, directed by Vikas Bahl, will be released in theatres on October 7. Rashmika then has Mission Majnu opposite Sidharth Malhotra, Animal with Ranbir Kapoor, and Varisu opposite Vijay in the pipeline. She will also reprise her role as Srivalli in Pushpa: The Rule, the sequel to her 2021 hit Pushpa: The Rise. The film stars Allu Arjun and Fahadh Faasil.