'No hi-hello': Kiara Advani says Geetu Mohandas banned pleasantries on Yash's Toxic set; here's why

Kiara Advani recently opened up about her experience of working on Yash's Toxic: A Fairy Tale For Grown-Ups and said that director Geetu Mohandas had a rather unusual request for her on set. The film was originally scheduled to be released on June 4, 2026, but has been postponed. The makers are yet to announce a new release date.

What did Kiara Advani say about shooting for Yash's Toxic?

Speaking to Bombay Times, Kiara shared that Geetu wanted her to stay completely immersed in her character while filming. Known for being friendly and greeting everyone when she arrives on set, the actor said she had to change that habit for this project. “Geetu is like, okay, tomorrow when you come on set, I want you to be… and I’m a person when I walk on set I’m always like, ‘Hi, what’s up, good morning’, I’m that person. And she’s like, ‘I don’t want pleasantries, I want you to come in that zone, no hi hello, not your team, nobody, just be in a zone today’," Kiara told Bombay Times.

Kiara Advani talks about shooting Toxic in Kannada

The actor also described Toxic as one of her more challenging projects, largely because she had to perform scenes in Kannada in addition to English. Since Kannada is not her first language, learning and delivering the dialogues required extra preparation.

“Working in Kannada, I think I would say Toxic has been challenging because it’s for the first time that we shot in both English and Kannada. We would do the same scene. So this shot was an English shot first till we got the take right. Then we do the Kannada take, because you’re, at least for someone like me, Kannada not being my language, mugging up my dialogues literally the night before," she said.

The film was shot in both English and Kannada and will also be released in several other languages, including Hindi.

Despite working in a different language industry, Kiara said she did not find the experience vastly different from her work in Hindi cinema. According to her, there are some cultural differences, but the overall working environment feels familiar.

“I think eventually there may be slight cultural differences, but I feel eventually at the core we’re all Indians, so there’s a similarity, there’s a familiarity. Even the style of working sometimes, the bigger the stars and backup, which is great over there. But apart from that, I feel I’ve had a fairly similar experience with working in Hindi and in Telugu language," she shared.

Backed by KVN Productions and Monster Mind Creations, Toxic: A Fairy Tale For Grown-Ups features Yash, Nayanthara, Huma Qureshi, Rukmini Vasanth and Tara Sutaria in key roles alongside Kiara. 

Also read: Did Kiara Advani ask Toxic makers to tone down her bold scenes with Yash? Actress reacts