In the 12 days since the second season of Rana Naidu premièred, Kriti Kharbanda hasn’t stopped smiling. Not only because the Netflix offering — starring Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh Daggubati — marks her maiden web series, but also because her parents have reacted warmly to it. “The character is so different from my personality that I wasn’t sure how my parents would react to it. I don’t connect to her on an emotional level except the fact that she is a woman trying to make her place in a man’s world. But after the show released, the response has been amazing,” she beams.

What makes Rana Naidu 2 all the more special is that it marks the actor’s first project in the past four years. After 14 Phere (2021), she took a break from acting. Her reasons were simple — the offers coming her way weren’t exciting, and she no longer felt the need to be seen everywhere. “I was feeling let down by what was coming my way. I want to feel excited when I go to work, otherwise it shows. I didn’t want to work for the heck of it,” she shares.

(From left) Kriti Kharbanda and Rana Daggubati in the show. Pics/X, Instagram

Taking a break in an industry that believes in the out-of-sight-out-of-mind philosophy can be a risk, but Kharbanda’s choice was rooted in self-confidence. “I have been working since the age of 17, and hadn’t taken a break because I felt I needed to be present everywhere. [I worried] that if I’m not in the right room, I’d miss an opportunity. That feeling comes from not being from the industry. You’re trying hard to make a name for yourself. That hustle got to me eventually and I needed to reinvent myself.”