Meet Dheekshith Shetty, Rashmika Mandanna's boyfriend in The Girlfriend

After Animal, Rashmika Mandanna has kicked off the shooting of her next film The Girlfriend, helmed by Rahul Ravindran. Now, days after the film went on the floors, the makers have introduced Dheekshith Shetty who will play Mandanna's boyfriend in the film.

Meet Rashmika Mandanna's boyfriend in The Girlfriend

On the occasion of Shetty's birthday on Friday, December 22, the makers introduced Dheekshith as the film's male lead. They dropped a special glimpse from the film, introducing his character Vikram who appears fierce. The video opens with a voice-over saying, "Vicky... Vikram. MSc Computer Science, a bellary boy. Vicky's our college team's Virat Kohli. vikram's gotta flash a smile and he gets all our college girls swooning."

In the next frame, we see an angry Vikram (Dheekshith) being held back by his friends as he charges towards a person (not shown) in anger. "Happy Birthday to the heartthrob @Dheekshiths. Introducing the talented actor as 'The BOYFRIEND' of #TheGirlfriend. Shoot in progress," read the caption.

Who is Dheekshith Shetty?

The 32-year-old made his debut in 2020 with the Kannada film Dia alongside Kushee Ravi and Pruthvi Ambaar. The film was a commercial success at the box office which was later remade in several regional languages -Hindi as Dear Dia, Telugu as Dear Megha, and Marathi as Sari. He has also appeared in Telugu films like Mugguru Monagallu and Nani starrer Dasara.

More about The Girlfriend

The film was announced last month with Rashmika appearing in the title reveal video. Earlier this month, the makers started the filming and dropped the video, offering a glimpse of the puja ceremony. The shooting will continue for another few days in Hyderabad before wrapping up the first schedule.

It is being produced by Allu Arvind’s Geetha Arts for their 51st film. The film also marks Rashmika’s 24th film.