4 min readHyderabadUpdated: Mar 20, 2026 02:43 PM IST
Less than a month after her Udaipur wedding with Vijay Deverakonda, Rashmika Mandanna walked into the Telangana Gaddar Film Awards ceremony to win the Best Actress on Thursday and had something personal to say while accepting the honour. “First they trolled my performance, and now the state has given me this award. I’ve come a long way,” she told the audience.
Rashmika won Best Actress at the Gaddar Telangana Film Awards 2025 for her role in The Girlfriend, where she played the character Bhooma Devi. The recognition carried extra weight for her. For years, she faced criticism and online trolling over her acting. Her acting has been mocked in memes, her Hindi diction picked apart, and her casting in certain films questioned. She has largely stayed quiet about it over the years. So when she stood on that stage and acknowledged the trolling directly, the room responded.
But it was her next words that caught the attention of the crowd. Rashmika married Vijay Deverakonda on February 26 in Udaipur, just a little over three weeks before the ceremony. Addressing the Telangana audience, she drew on that. “Back then, I came before you as a daughter. Today, I stand before you as a daughter-in-law. It gives me great pride,” she said.
Rashmika has long been a favourite with Telugu audiences, and the reference to now being a daughter-in-law of Telangana, through her marriage to the Hyderabad-born actor Vijay Deverakonda, felt natural and personal rather than rehearsed.
She also spoke about Ugadi, which fell days after her wedding. “It is my first festival as a married woman, and I actually completed my pooja before heading to the award ceremony. It was beautiful and I feel contended.”
After the award ceremony, on Friday, Rashmika shared a heartfelt note in X. “When I was young and someone had become a state level winner I would look at them as superstars. I’d be like how did they do what they did, what do they do through their days and stuff like that and last evening getting a state award was something extremely special to me.. I don’t think I can put the feelings into words but I feel like I’ve come a long, long way! I felt a sense of pride, happiness and satisfaction in a sense.”
When I was young and someone had become a state level winner i would look at them as superstars. I’d be like how did they do what they did, what do they do through their days and stuff like that and last evening getting a state award was something extremely special to me.. I… pic.twitter.com/5yCmL3nEm3
— Rashmika Mandanna (@iamRashmika) March 20, 2026
The Gaddar Film Awards ceremony brought together some of the biggest names from the industry. Chiranjeevi received the prestigious NTR National Award from Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, while Naga Chaitanya won Best Actor for his performance in Thandel.
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Rashmika thanked director Rahul Ravindran, production house Geetha Arts, and the Telangana government for the recognition. On social media after the announcement, she wrote that Bhooma Devi is “so very very close to my heart.” For Rashmika, the timing of all of it, a new marriage, a first festival, and a state award within the same month, made the speech feel less like an industry moment and more like a personal one.
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