This Monday, Avantika 鈥� a mononymous actress well-known for her recent portrayal of Karen in the musical adaptation of 鈥淢ean Girls鈥� (2024) 鈥� gave a talk at the Granoff Martinos Auditorium, marking the first event of the Ivy Film Festival.
The discussion was moderated by Ailsa Kokoricha 鈥�26 and Lemuel Greaves 鈥�26, two members of the IFF team. The interview was followed by an open Q&A session.
Over the hour-long talk, Avantika gave insight into various aspects of her career, starting with her experience in the entertainment industry as a ballet dancer. Starting at a young age, she eventually transitioned into acting due to the long-term physical taxation of dance.
Avantika cited facing many challenges when pursuing a career in film, some of which stemmed from a lack of worker protections. Upon her initial expression of wanting to act professionally, her mother suggested that she make her debut in the Indian film industry to avoid stereotype-casting. She described working in India as 鈥渧ery rough鈥� due to the lack of a union system, and recalled leaving film sets at 3:00 a.m. and returning at 6:00 a.m.
Despite these challenges, she likened her relationships with her castmates in the Indian film industry to a 鈥渇amily,鈥� contrasting it to the bureaucratic structure of the American film industry.
Avantika also discussed previous, current and future projects. She shared her affinity for her character in 鈥淢ean Girls,鈥� describing Karen as 鈥渟omeone who remains joyful because of how ignorant she is.鈥� Avantika explained that she always looks to 鈥渋nject joy鈥� in her roles and that it was important to her to play a brown person who is 鈥渙kay with being stupid and doesn鈥檛 feel the need to compensate.鈥�
She later spoke more about the importance of 鈥渦sing her voice鈥� to promote further diversity in Hollywood and also referenced her cultural background in her work and image.
Avantika also shared that she will be taking a leave of absence from her studies at Columbia to focus on her career. She criticized higher educational institutions for making it difficult for students to pursue extracurricular opportunities on top of their schoolwork.
During the Q&A session many attendees took the opportunity to ask a wide range of questions. Her dream project, whether or not she likes seeing TikTok edits of herself and how she chooses roles that feel authentic to her cultural identity were some of the themes discussed.
Taarini Godbole 鈥�27 described the talk as 鈥渞eally inspiring and cool to see.鈥�
鈥淎s a South Asian person, it is really nice to see her perspective on going into this industry and how she navigated everything,鈥� Godbole added.
Jennifer Tran 鈥�25 enjoyed learning more about Avantika鈥檚 鈥減erspective and her lived experiences,鈥� especially in a moment of growing Asian representation in media, she said.
The Ivy Film Festival will continue throughout the week. Future events a screening of 鈥淭he Idea of You鈥� starring Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway on April 13 and a discussion with 鈥淲icked鈥� actress Cynthia Erivo on April 14.
