Actors Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna recently opened up about their relationship, their journey from co-stars to life partners and how their understanding of love has evolved over the years. The couple also spoke about the little efforts that keep a relationship going.When Prakhar Gupta asked Vijay if he knew instantly that Rashmika was the one when they first met, the actor dismissed the idea of love at first sight. The Liger actor said, “No. Can you ever know instantly? I don’t believe in love at first sight. I need to go through a journey for love. You can know instantly that she is beautiful. But can you know instantly that she is the one? No. I knew nothing about her. I did think that she was a very beautiful girl but when I met her, I guess it was my third or fourth film. So, it’s more about the excitement of being on set, nervous of being on day 1 with a new team, and the aspiration of doing something successful. First day on any set is nerve-racking. You’re not comfortable enough to think about love and such. It has been eight years since we first met.”Rashmika, however, corrected him about the timeline of their first meeting, saying, “No, it’s been 9 years since we met but 8 years since our film released.” Vijay jokingly responded, “So, that film is my marker for how long I have known her.”Vijay Deverakonda also spoke about how his perception of love was very different when he was younger. He admitted that he once considered love a marketing term and questioned the idea of falling in love more than once. The actor said, “First of all, at that age, I was somebody who didn’t believe in love, I was around 28-29. If you look at my interviews from then, you’ll see that I talk very disrespectfully about love, from a distance, and that comes from a place of young energy. I thought love is a marketing term. We’ve all fallen in love multiple times in life. So, what does love mean? If I can fall in love with somebody and then I can fall in love with somebody else, then this is bullshit. So, I used to talk like this a lot.”He added, “You feel your mother’s love, don’t you? There is love where people think about you more than themselves. It took growing up and maturity to understand that. Don’t disrespect the love in your life. Don’t say love is a marketing term. Respect it, appreciate it, nurture it. So, for that journey, it took me many years. When I got an understanding about these things, then I started looking at love and relationships differently.”Also Read: ‘Digital equivalent of sexual assault’: Vijay Deverakonda on Janhvi Kapoor’s AI deepfake videoVijay revealed that he only felt ready for marriage when he was 36, admitting that maturity played an important role in his decision. Rashmika Mandanna playfully interrupted him, telling him, “Baby, you were late.” Vijay said, “When I was 36, I finally felt, ‘I feel like getting married.’ I felt that I was ready and mature to understand this, to love it, I felt ready.”Story continues below this adRashmika Mandanna says love is about making small efforts, Vijay Deverakonda calls her the more mature oneTalking about what keeps a relationship strong, Rashmika Mandanna stressed that people often make efforts for those around them but tend to take their partners for granted. The Cocktail 2 actor said, “We human beings always have to keep making efforts for the people that we love. Because most often we make a lot of efforts for people around than the people at your own house. I keep thinking that after getting married, you stop telling each other some very basic things. Something like ‘Good morning’, ‘Are you doing well?’ or ‘How was your day?’ It becomes, ‘My partner already knows, so what’s the point of saying it?’ And then, at some point, it could become, ‘Why haven’t I heard this in such a long time?’ Meanwhile, life keeps pulling us in different directions.”She further emphasised that these efforts should continue even after marriage and having children. “Efforts, no matter how much into the relationship or marriage you are or even if you have kids together, I still feel like those little efforts should be made for each other, and that is love. It should be effortless but also you need to do these things because you want to do these things. That’s something that I believe in love.”Vijay Deverakonda agreed with Rashmika Mandanna and called her the more mature one when it came to relationships. Vijay said, “Rashmika is more mature when it comes to relationships. Look at how she’s talking. She makes sure she tells me ‘I love you’ at least 10-15 times a day, and she tells me that it’s important for me to express it too. I constantly feel it, but I shouldn’t think, ‘Okay, she knows it, so I don’t need to say it.’ She reminds me of that, which makes me more aware because we are so caught up in life that sometimes we can forget these smaller, simpler but important things.”He also opened up about being a control freak and how it took him time to trust the relationship and allow things to fall into place naturally. The Liger actor said, “So, she is the one who actually made me… I was worried for the longest time whether I will be able to drive this because I am a control freak, and I was wondering if I left the steering, will it work automatically? My 4-5 years went in that (laughs). She knew that the car was working, and would say, ‘You relax.’ By nature, that’s probably your upbringing, childhood. You are who you are because of everything that you don’t even remember. Everything shapes you into the kind of person that you are.”Story continues below this adVijay became emotional while talking about Rashmika and how she ensured that their relationship stood the test of time. He said, “She’s somebody who always made sure that this relationship got through every obstacle and lasted.”Rashmika Mandanna recalls Vijay Deverakonda calling her music ‘shitty’ on Geetha Govindam setsRecalling her first meeting with Vijay Deverakonda on the sets of Geetha Govindam, Rashmika Mandanna revealed that she initially addressed him as ‘sir’ because he was more experienced in the industry. She also remembered an incident from the first day of the shoot when Vijay asked her to turn off the music she was playing, leaving her upset. She said, “I remember when I first met him on set, I used to call him sir because I was new into the industry and he had done 3-4 films by that time. On Day 1, I was playing this random music on the set, and he goes like, ‘Turn that music off.’”Vijay interrupted and said, “I am a blunt person, and I assume everyone to understand the intention. I feel like, we should be able to talk freely, openly but sometimes when you don’t know each other fully, it was stupid of me to assume, she’ll get it. I just casually said, ‘What is this shitty music that you’re playing?’ I shouted because we had to share a locked caravan in between but because we were not big stars, so half caravan was for her, and half was for me and my team. I screamed, ‘What is this shitty music that you are playing?’”Rashmika pointed out that it was hardly the ideal thing to hear from a co-actor, especially when she was new to the industry. She said, “That is the first thing your co-actor is telling you, right?” Vijay responded, “What should I say?” Rashmika added, “You’re absolutely right. Now that I think about it, I wonder what that was all about.”Story continues below this adVijay then revealed that the incident had deeply affected Rashmika, although she did not tell him about it at the time. He said, “She had tears in her eyes because she thought that he doesn’t like me.” Rashmika explained, “Because it is a new place, new industry.” Vijay recalled, “She thought it is going to be a torture like this. She told me this much later.” Rashmika admitted, “Yes, for a long time, I hadn’t said it.”When Vijay asked why she had not spoken about it earlier, Rashmika explained that she was extremely sensitive at the time and would get emotional over even the smallest things. However, as they began working together, their equation gradually changed.Rashmika said, “I was extremely sensitive and everything would tear me up. Going to the set and there were these situations when we started working in the film, he would help me with the dialogues, and everytime I used to call him sir, he used to be like, ‘Stop calling me that. I have a name, call me that’ then of course, it became Vijay, and then we became friends.”She revealed that working on two consecutive films together gave them the opportunity to spend a lot of time with each other, eventually turning them into close friends. Rashmika added, “Because we did two back-to-back films with each other, we sort of spent so much time with each other, we were pretty much talking to each other the whole day, you are shooting and prepping for the same film. Hence, it became like… he was my best friend back then, and then much later on, I was like, ‘Okay, I am feeling something, and this is not…’”Story continues below this adRashmika Mandanna says God had a hand in her relationship with Vijay DeverakondaRashmika also spoke about how her feelings for Vijay developed over time and said that she believes a higher power guided their relationship. What began as a friendship eventually turned into love, with the couple finding their way to each other. The Animal actor said, “I just feel that God has his hand in our relationship, in our love. There is some sort of supreme power who has guided us into this. Hence, the wedding happened and here we are.”Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna are currently gearing up for the release of their period drama Ranabaali, which marks another on-screen reunion for the actors. Directed by Rahul Sankrityan and produced by Naveen Yerneni and Y Ravi Shankar under the banner of Mythri Movie Makers, the period action drama is scheduled to release in theatres worldwide on October 16, 2026.