Raymo, in which I am paired with Ishan CV, is my first full-fledged love story: Ashika Ranganath

Earlier this week, the team of filmmaker Pavan Wadeyar’s upcoming directorial, Raymo, had its wrap-up pooja. The film, according to Pavan, is a musical love story, with both protagonists playing musicians who are a part of a band. While Ishan plays a rockstar, Ashika’s character is that of girl from a traditional Brahmin family, who gets to be on the troupe.

Recently, during a media interaction, Ashika said that Raymo is perhaps her first full-fledged love story. “This is a film in which everything, right from the script to the cast and the crew, everything worked out perfectly. I don’t think I have done a character like this before, wherein I have got so much scope to perform. It is very rare for an actress to get a role that is not only substantial, but also gets almost equal relevance in the narrative as the hero. I am very lucky, but also thankful to Pavan sir for considering me for this role and believing that I am apt for it,” she says, adding, “I don’t get to dance in this film, given that it is about musicians. Of course, there are good songs by Arjun Janya that have been choreographed by Imran Sardhariya, but these are not the typical dance numbers. This is a role that leans heavily on performance.”

Raymo, adds Ashika, is ‘her kind of film’. I am a fan of romantic and comedy movies, so when Pavan narrated the story, it felt right in my groove and I really liked it. As a fan of his film Googly (which had Yash and Kriti Kharbanda in the lead), I felt that this story could have been apt as Googly 2, especially if you look at the trajectory of the love story in this tale. The story apart, the making of the film is also good; there’s a richness to it. I am looking forward to seeing how audiences react to this film when it releases in theatres,” says the actress. The team had, in fact, shot a concert sequence in Africa, early last year, and was set to travel to a few more foreign destinations for other songs when the pandemic struck.

As for working with Ishan, the actress says that when she first saw him, she thought he was an import from another language and probably couldn’t speak (or understand) Kannada. “We took some time to break the ice and really get to know each other, but over time, we became good friends, which made working with him more comfortable. Ishan is a very sweet guy,” she says, adding with a laugh, “Most importantly, this is also the first time that the cinematographer did not have to worry about the lighting for a shot based on our complexions, because we have very similar skin tones. Ishan and I made it easy for Vaidhi sir.” Raymo also stars Prabhu Mundkur, karunya Ram, Madhoo Shah and R Sarath Kumar in pivotal roles. The film will be released with Tamil and Telugu versions as well.