Rukmini Vasanth on the Anxieties of Playing a Negative Role in ‘Kantara: Chapter 1’

For Rukmini Vasanth, the major anxiety of being part of Rishab Shetty's Kantara: Chapter 1 was playing the complicated and scheming Kanakavathi. “I was very anxious about the fact that she turns out to be a negative character,” she admits in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India.

That anxiety, she says, came from something many actors hear early in their careers, even if it’s never stated outright. “In the early stages, you don’t really delve into the grey. There’s this idea of what a traditional heroine should be, the values she should embody, and where in the film you’re meant to exist,” she says. 

The fear wasn’t about the role alone, but what it might lead to. “You’re not just taking on this one film. It feels like it has a compounding effect on the rest of your career,” she says.  At that point, she explains that an actor is constantly aware of what might come next. “You don’t want to threaten future work because you don’t know what opportunities will come your way.”

Rukmini acknowledges that the pressure often comes disguised as well-meaning advice. “Maybe it’s the fallacy of the ‘nice girl,'" she says, reflecting on the idea that experimentation is something one is expected to do later on in their career. “Once you’ve done the whole spectrum, then sure, you can experiment. But early on, it feels dangerous.”

Interestingly, she says that fear didn’t follow her onto set. “Once you take on a film, you’ve taken it on. You’re either fully immersed in the world of the film, or you’re thinking, ‘Oh, there’s a leech on my foot.’ Those are the two realities,” she says, referring to filming in the thick of the Kundapur forests for the Kannada magnum opus.

It was only closer to the release that the anxiety returned. “You start wondering, ‘Am I going to spend the rest of my career playing the bad guy?’” she says, adding that it wasn’t necessarily a bad outcome, just an unknown one.

The response after the release changed everything. “I’m thrilled. People are talking about my range,” she says. Instead of being boxed in, she found herself reassured. “They’re not saying, ‘Stick to good girl roles.’ They’re saying they loved both sides; I don’t think I need to be so scared anymore.”