On Sunday, Vijay Deverakonda confirmed what India had already been assuming for months, he and Rashmika Mandanna are getting married. By Monday, the two had been spotted in Udaipur, where they are reportedly getting married. For a couple that spent seven years refusing to confirm they were even together, it’s a fitting way to tie the knot. But rewind to November 2025, and there’s a moment that, in hindsight, was the real announcement. Just not in the way anyone expected.
Rashmika and Vijay first worked together on Geetha Govindam in 2018. The film was a hit, the chemistry was obvious, and the rumours started almost immediately. They followed it up with Dear Comrade in 2019.
For years, the questions kept coming. Her answer was always some version of: we’ll speak when the time is right. His, in a Curly Tales interview, was characteristically sideways: “I am 35 years old; you think I will be single?”, technically confirming nothing, practically confirming everything. Then came The Girlfriend.
Midway through the circuit, she sat down with anchor Suma Kanakala. It started as a conversation about the film and soon became something else entirely.
She said the characters, Vikram, Durga, Bhooma, aren’t fictional. She knew because she had been one of them. She spoke about once being in a relationship where she had no real choice. “Today, when I choose to be with a person, I am happy, that person is happy, and everyone around is happy.” Then: “Luckily, I have a partner who has healed me from a pain he didn’t cause. He has helped me heal. I have to give him that applause and thank him for it.”
And then, still without saying a name, she described what it looked like when trolls came for her at home: “In my house, my own partner, I’ll be like, I’m getting trolled so much. He says, ‘there’s nothing like that. Why are you overthinking?’ He says he doesn’t notice it at all. You’re not seeing it, but I am. They even tag and make sure I see it.”
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The trolling didn’t start with Vijay. It started in Karnataka. She debuted in Kirik Party (2016) opposite Rakshit Shetty, one of Sandalwood’s most beloved actors, and got engaged to him in 2017. When they broke up in 2018, a section of Kannada fans never let it go. It snowballed: she was accused of snubbing the production house that launched her, of not watching Kantara (directed by Rishab Shetty, who gave her her first break), of abandoning the industry that built her.
A still from Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna’s first movie, Geetha Govindam, together
In early 2025, a casual remark at a Chhaava event, “I am from Hyderabad,” sent Karnataka into another spiral. A Congress MLA held a press conference, said she needed to be “taught a lesson.” Kannada actress Ramya publicly defended her: “Women are easy targets. Those who engage in trolling should understand the emotional distress they cause.” Her own Kodava community raised safety concerns on her behalf.
The Vijay rumours, running parallel from 2020, added a different kind of noise. Fans juxtaposed screenshots of their Instagram stories side by side, the same peacock from the same Abu Dhabi trip, posted separately, neither tagging the other. In early 2024, a rumour about an imminent engagement spread so convincingly that Vijay had to deny it on his own Instagram Stories. When he walked ahead of her at an event while she recovered from a leg injury, he was trolled. When she posted holiday pictures from the same location as him, she was trolled for trying too hard. Nothing they did was ever neutral.
In November 2022, she’d written on Instagram: “I have been on the receiving end of a lot of hate ever since I started my career. Quite literally a punching bag.”
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By November 2025, Rashmika was promoting The Girlfriend, a Telugu film about a woman quietly leaving a toxic relationship. A deliberate step sideways from the commercial blockbusters that had made her a star. At The Girlfriend’s success event on November 12, Vijay was there. He had quietly lent his voice to the film, no announcement, no fanfare. Rashmika thanked him on stage, visibly emotional: “I can only hope that everyone has a Vijay Deverakonda in their lives. Because that’s a blessing.”
Vijay Devarakonda kisses Rashmika Mandanna’s hand during The Girlfriend’s event
Then he spoke: “I’ve seen Rash evolve over the years. While I tend to be aggressive, she always chooses kindness. The Girlfriend isn’t just a film, it’s a purpose. Rash, I’m proud you’re standing here with a film that gives strength to others.”
The couple got engaged in October 2025. On Sunday, they announced the wedding, calling it “The Wedding of VIROSH”, a name their fans had given them long before they admitted to anything.
