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January 17, 2024 05:41 pm | Updated 05:41 pm IST
Avantika Vandanapu; with Mahesh Babu in 2016 during the release of ‘Brahmotsavam’ | Photo Credit: @avantika/Instagram & IMDb
South Asian actors making a mark in Hollywood has become a regular affair in recent years, and the latest sensation who has taken the internet by storm is Avantika Vandanapu. The 18-year-old NRI actor who started as a child artist in the Telugu film industry has now played a stellar role in Mean Girls, the recently-released modern reimagination of the iconic movie.
Born to a Telugu family in San Francisco, California, United States, Avantika made her acting debut in 2016, in the Mahesh Babu-starrer Brahmotsavam. A clip from an interview she had with the superstar has now gone viral.
Over the next few years, Avantika went on to star in multiple Telugu films, like Naga Chaitanya’s Premam and Rarandoi Veduka Chudham and Pawan Kalyan’s Agnyaathavaasi. In 2021, she made her debut in Tamil with the Aishwarya Rajesh-starrer Boomika.
The actor then transitioned to Hollywood, making her lead debut with the Disney Channel original movie Spin in 2021. 2022’s comedy film Senior Year saw her share the screen with the likes of Rebel Wilson, Mary Holland, Sam Richardson, Zoë Chao, Chris Parnell and so on.
In Mean Girls, released last week, Avantika plays Karen Shetty, a re-imagination of the role of Karen Smith that Amanda Seyfried played in the 2004 film. Her performance in the film has become a talking point, and netizens couldn’t get enough of this picture that Seyfried shared with Avantika on Instagram.
A post shared by avantika (@avantika)
Avantika is the latest entrant to the list of South Asian talent who have made a mark in Hollywood, a list that includes Iman Vellani, Geraldine Viswanathan, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Richa Moorjani, Megan Suri, Charithra Chandran and so on and a list one wishes grows more and more.
Apart from Avantika, the new Mean Girls also stars Angourie Rice, Auliʻi Cravalho and Christopher Briney. The film, an adaptation of the Broadway show version of the 2004 film, has Reneé Rapp reprising her role from the stage musical, and Tina Fey and Tim Meadows reprising their roles from the original film.
English cinema / Telugu cinema
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