Rashmika Was Always The First Choice, The Girlfriend Producers Reveal!

Sometimes, a story just finds its face before the ink even dries. That’s what happened with The Girlfriend. The makers say Rashmika Mandanna was always meant to play the lead, no debates, no auditions, just a quiet certainty.

For a while, there were whispers that director Rahul Ravindran, who’s a good friend of Samantha Ruth Prabhu, had first pitched the idea to her. But the producers have now set the record straight, it was Rashmika from the start, no one else was ever in the picture. We never planned it with Samantha, Vidya laughed. Rashmika was our first thought, and honestly, the only one who could pull this off.

The Girlfriend brings together Rashmika Mandanna and Dheekshith Shetty, with Dheeraj Mogilineni and Vidya Koppineedi producing it under Geetha Arts and Dheeraj Mogilineni Entertainment, presented by Allu Aravind. It’s meant to be a tender, emotional love story seen through the heroine’s eyes, not your regular rom-com formula. The producers said they went ahead with their gut, not worrying too much about box office math, just trusting the story.

Dheeraj shared that they couldn’t think of anyone better than Rashmika. “Her energy, her emotion, she just fit,” he said. The film’s set for release on the 7th of this month in Telugu and Hindi, and then in other languages on the 14th. Interestingly, Rashmika didn’t even charge her usual fee at first, but the team later paid her double as a gesture of thanks for believing in the project.

Vidya Koppineedi added that The Girlfriend isn’t just another romantic flick, it’s got heart and a bit of truth from real life too. She said the censor board even praised the film, saying it had the feel of a National Award winner. The music by Hesham Abdul Wahab adds to its mood.