Avantika Vandanapu is on a mission to turn heads. After her glorious performance in the reboot of ‘Mean Girls’ where she starred as Karen Shetty, the actor is now seen in Amazon Prime Video’s new show – ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry.’ In a recent interview, she opened up about how she is being trolled by people for her American accent.
In a conversation with iDream Media, Avantika Vandanapu talked about how people pulled out her older interviews and started trolling her for her accent. She talked about how immigrant children code-switch and talk in different accents depending on where they are. She said that it was natural for her to have an American accent because she was born and brought up in the United States.
Vandanapu said, “I was born and raised in the US; it’s natural for me to have an American accent. A lot of immigrant kids code-switch, as in, we speak in an English accent at school and an Indian accent at home. But I think the Telugu audience is unfamiliar with it. I was trolled for how I speak in English, but I can’t speak Telugu everywhere, right?”
The actor said that she thought people would be proud of her achievements in Hollywood rather than focusing on her accent. She said that she would have been proud if she saw a Telugu girl make it big in the West. She continued, “When a Telugu girl gains success in Hollywood, she should be supported. It’s unfair I was trolled for my accent. I would be proud and want to uplift, instead of troll. I thought people would be proud of me. I will keep doing what I will because my family is proud of me, and their opinions are the only ones that matter.”
Avantika Vandanapu debuted in 2016 when she starred alongside Mahesh Babu in ‘Brahmotsavam.’ Since then, she has worked with Naga Chaitanya, and Pawan Kalyan to name a few.
