She may well be famous as India's national crush, but this is how Rashmika Mandanna handles the flip side of online fame.
Category
ЁЯОе
Short filmTranscript
00:00Should I give up on the industry, should I stop acting, should I not do films, should I do something, should I cut my hair, should I become lean, should I become fat, what do they want?
00:30It's ridiculous what happens today.
00:58And I just feel that, you know, I spoke to Ananya also in the last season and her episode
01:04was on social media, bullying, it is a bullying, today if I post a video they'll say, you talk
01:09like a girl, you are this, you are that, they go to any extent to name shame and call me
01:14out, whatever.
01:15What I feel is that at a younger age when it happens to you, you are very young when
01:19that trolling started, today you might be having that guard and that defence to give
01:25it back or to handle it.
01:27Do you remember the first time when it happened, did it break you down?
01:29Naturally, it hit me like a bloody tsunami, like I didn't see it coming, I didn't even
01:35know what trolling, I wasn't even aware of it and I was this girl who had like some 100-200
01:41followers and I was following some 400-500 people, you know, I was just that girl.
01:48But I think I, to one point I was body shamed and then they were talking about my personality,
01:55my character, my family, you know, my school, my upbringing and all of that.
02:02I remember all of this happening and the first time it happened, I was like, but why is there
02:08so much negativity?
02:09And the thing is, when people are trolling you, you feel like the whole world is trolling
02:12you.
02:13Yeah.
02:14It's just that, you know, 1-2% of the whole audience that you have but it was just such
02:19a new concept that actually I started losing myself into all of this.
02:24I started, you know, shelving myself into, you know, I don't want to be seen, I don't
02:29like, I want to behave this way, I want to talk this way and oh my god, it was bad.
02:34I remember, but I think, like again, we humans tend to adapt to all of this, like we're survivors
02:43in the end of the day and all my friends and family call me a survivor because they know
02:48all of the sh** that I've been through but I've never lost a smile on my face.
02:53Yeah, exactly.
02:54Like, I just, like somehow every time I speak to someone in a public space or some, like
03:00even, I don't know, I just can't, like I just want to smile, I just want to make another
03:06person smile.
03:07I think that's what I live by and all the negativity and all of that, oh, it was hard.
03:13It is.
03:14Oh, I'm getting goosebumps because I'm starting to go back there.
03:17No, but you know, it is true because I have also battled it.
03:19I have battled it at a very young age, 12, when I was bullied and then, you know, they
03:23say, I have told this so many times, that at one point, you can hit as much as you want
03:27but that place becomes dull after a point and then it stops affecting you.
03:30True.
03:31In the beginning, people make you feel like, like you said, it hits you like a noise and
03:34then you feel like, maybe they're right.
03:37You start judging yourself and self-doubting yourself.
03:40Did you go through that?
03:41Yeah, oh my god, I was like, am I not good enough, should I give up on the industry,
03:45should I stop acting, should I not do films, should I do something, should I cut my hair,
03:51should I become lean, should I become fat, what do they want?
03:55And no matter what I did, nothing was convincing.
04:00Just because I probably took out a name in an interview or some, I got one word wrong
04:05in a language or I don't speak in a certain language or I don't, you know, behave a certain
04:13way someone wants me to, I'm like, dude, like this is just impossible to freaking convince
04:20every f*****g body.
04:21So, I was like, you know what, you don't like me, fine, deal with it, I'm just want to be me.
04:26Yes.
04:27You know, even today, of course, I can't lie, it does affect me.
04:30Some things when, you know, when they talk about my upbringing, when they talk about
04:34my family, I give it back, like anything, keep it to me, like my parents, my sister,
04:40they didn't do a s**t, you know, they're just my family, okay, fine, leave them out of it.
04:46Like, do s**t to me, s**t to my name, do whatever you want and that's when I lose it.
04:52That's one time I'm actually not smiling, I give it back.