As anticipation builds for Toxic: A Fairy Tale For Grown-Ups, lead actress Kiara Advani shared what it was like shooting for the film starring Yash. The actress revealed that director Jeetu Mohandas had a strict rule about no pleasantries on set and shooting in Kannada for the first time pushed her outside her comfort zone.
Kiara Advani reveals Geetu Mohandas’ ‘no hi, hello’ rule on set
In an interview with Bombay Times, Kiara Advani, who is known for her warm and chatty presence on sets, said that the director asked her to completely abandon her usual greetings in order to remain locked in her character’s headspace.“Geetu is like, ‘Okay, tomorrow when you come on set, I want you to be like that,'” she said, “and I’m a human being; when I walk on set, I’m always like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ Good morning.” I’m that person. She says, “I don’t want compliments; I don’t want niceties. ‘I want you to come to that zone, no hello, hello, not your team, no one, just be in the zone today.’
Kiara Advani talks about shooting in Kannada for the first time
Kiara Advani also described filming bilingually as one of the most challenging experiences of her career, especially because she had to perform each scene twice – once in English and once in Kannada.She said, “Working in Kannada, I guess I would say Toxic was a challenge because it’s the first time we shot in English and Kannada. We were doing the same scene. So this shot was an English shot first so we got the right shot.”
Then we do Kannada, because, at least for someone like me, Kannada is not my language, you literally steal my dialogues the night before.”Although it has been shot in English and Kannada, Toxic will be released in several languages, including Hindi.
Kiara Advani talks about language differences
Despite the linguistic expansion, Kiara said the experience of working in the Kannada film industry was not significantly different from Hindi or Telugu productions.“I think in the end there may be slight cultural differences, but I feel at the end of the day we are all Indians, so there is a similarity, there is a familiarity. And even the style of working sometimes, the bigger the stars and the backup, which is great there. But apart from that, I feel I have had a somewhat similar experience working in Hindi and Telugu,” she added.
More about “Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Adults”
‘Toxic’ features an ensemble cast including Yash,
Nayanthara
,
Huma Qureshi
,
Rukmini Vasanth
and
Tara Sutaria
. The film was originally scheduled to be released on June 4, 2026 but has since been postponed. The new release date has not been announced yet.
