Avantika Vandanapu recalls working with Mahesh Babu: Nothing short of a dream come true

In a recent interview, Mean Girls star Avantika Vandanapu opened up about debuting in Tollywood and more.

Actor Avantika Vandanapu had quite a career that started out in Tollywood and culminated in her acting in the 2024 reboot of Tina Fey’s Mean Girls. Her debut was with the 2016 Telugu film Brahmotsavam with Mahesh Babu. In an interview with 123 Telugu, she recalled working with the star and opened up with whom she would like to work with in the future. (Also Read: Internet shocked to see Avantika Vandanapu’s transformation from little girl in Brahmotsavam to Karen in Mean Girls)

Avantika Vandanapu's first film was Brahmotsavam with Mahesh Babu (Instagram)

‘It was a dream come true’

Talking to the portal, she said that she grew up admiring Mahesh. “To have my first opportunity in Tollywood with Mahesh was nothing short of a dream come true. Working as a child artiste in India, especially in my mother tongue, helped me become comfortable with the idea of pursuing a career in entertainment as a child.” Avantika played Mahesh’s young cousin in the film.

‘I would love to work in India’

She also spoke about how she had a checklist of directors she wanted to work with here, both in Tollywood and Bollywood. She said, “I would love to work with Rajamouli, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sekhar Kammula and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. They have a talent for presenting women in their films as powerful, graceful and artful. And I would love to be one of the characters they write.”

Upcoming work

Mean Girls released on January 9 in the US, and Avantika played Karen Shetty, a call-back to Karen Smith from the original 2004 film. The film also starred Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, and Christopher Briney in the lead roles, and is not just based on Tina Fey’s previous film but also the book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman.

The film is yet to be released in India. Apart from this, Avantika has shot for a horror film called Tarot, which is yet to be released apart from a Prime Video show called BGDC.

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