'Turn that music off': How Vijay Deverakonda made Rashmika Mandanna cry on day one

Dubai: Long before they were married, Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna got off to a rocky start.

The couple appeared together on Prakhar Gupta's podcast, their first joint podcast since their wedding in February. They looked back on their first day of filming the 2018 Telugu romantic comedy Geetha Govindam, which ended with Rashmika in tears.

Rashmika was new to Telugu cinema when filming began, while Vijay already had a few films behind him.

"I remember when I first met him on set, I used to call him sir because I was new into the industry and he had done 3-4 films by that time," she said.

"On Day 1, I was playing this random music on the set, and he goes like, 'Turn that music off.'"

Vijay explained that his reaction came down to his personality, and to the fact that the two were sharing a small space at the time.

"I am a blunt person, and I assume everyone to understand the intention. I feel like, we should be able to talk freely, openly but sometimes when you don't know each other fully, it was stupid of me to assume, she'll get it," he said.

The pair, he added, were not yet big enough stars to have their own caravans.

"I just casually said, 'What is this sh**ty music that you're playing?' I shouted because we had to share a locked caravan in between but because we were not big stars, so half caravan was for her, and half was for me and my team."

For Rashmika, the remark carried more weight than he intended.

"That is the first thing your co-actor is telling you, right?" she said. "Because it is a new place, new industry."

Vijay admitted she had been genuinely hurt. "She had tears in her eyes because she thought that he doesn't like me," he recalled.

She did not tell him at the time. "She thought it is going to be a torture like this. She told me this much later," Vijay said.

"Yes, for a long time, I hadn't said it," Rashmika agreed.

The tension did not last. As filming went on, Vijay began helping her with her dialogues, and the formality soon disappeared.

"I was extremely sensitive and everything would tear me up," Rashmika said. "Going to the set and there were these situations when we started working in the film, he would help me with the dialogues, and everytime I used to call him sir, he used to be like, 'Stop calling me that. I have a name, call me that.' Then of course, it became Vijay, and then we became friends."

It was not the only time she cried on that set. In a 2019 interview, Rashmika recalled that director Parasuram once played a prank on her when she arrived late, with nobody on set speaking to her, which also left her in tears.

Directed by Parasuram, Geetha Govindam became one of the biggest hits of both actors' careers. They reunited for Dear Comrade in 2019.

The couple will next share the screen in Ranabaali, a period action drama directed by Rahul Sankrityan, which releases on October 16.