10 Things to know about Rukmini Vasanth- heroine of Birbal Trilogy: Case 1

Daughter of Col. Vasanth Venugopal, AC
Rukmini Vasanth is the daughter of Col. Vasanth Venugopal and Subhashini Vasanth. Col. Vasanth was an army officer who martyred in 2007 while fighting insurgents in the Uri district of Kashmir. His sacrifice won him the prestigious Ashoka Chakra, the first for Karnataka.

Trained Dancer
Rukmini’s mother Subhashini is a renowned Bharatanatyam dancer, so Rukmini has been surrounded by the arts all her life. She began training in classical ballet under Yana Lewis at the tender age of 7. She has learnt other forms also, such a contemporary and Bharatnatyam.

She sings!

Apart from her acting career, Rukmini is currently working on the Disney musical Aladdin that has been presented in Mumbai and Delhi. This stage performance is 2 1/2 hours long and requires live singing. Rukmini was selected from a pool of 8000 people who auditioned from across India.

Triple Threat: RADA
Rukmini is what is known as a “Triple Threat” meaning that she can dance, sing and also act. She has been performing onstage since she was 10. She began taking theatre lessons at the age of 15 and gave the Trinity-Guildhall theatre exam to receive a distinction.
Afterwards she applied to Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, one of the top drama schools in the world and was selected from 4000 applicants from around the world.

Invited to perform in Germany

In 2017, Rukmini was invited as part of The Spargel-Starlight Theatre Tour to perform in Mannheim, Germany. A group of 10 young actors trained by Kirtana Kumar and Konarak Reddy were invited to share their play, The Big Bolly Boo Hoo in the children’s theatre festival of Mannheim.

Visual artist

Rukmini has been interested in art since she was a young child. At one point she wished to make a career out of it. She enjoys working with watercolours, acrylics and pencils.
In her high school years she began exploring photography. She gave a small exhibition of her photographs while in school.

Writes Travel Writing and Poetry

Rukmini loves travelling and particularly enjoys recording all the details of her travels by writing about it. She has made cross-media scrapbooks of her travels, meaning that portions of it are recorded as photos and videos, and some portions are collected as sound recordings while others are recorded as written articles.
Rukmini also writes poetry as a hobby.

Volunteer Work

While in school and also after graduating, Rukmini has volunteered with many organisations. She has worked with Vasantharatna, an NGO started by her mother that helps the wives and children of jawans who are Martyred.
While in school she volunteered at government schools in rural Karnataka, teaching math and English and art.

Outstanding Academics
After giving her final 12th standard A-level exams, Rukmini was recognised with an “outstanding distinction” as the highest scorer across India for that year in the subject of Sociology.

Left college to pursue her dreams
After graduating from RADA in London, Rukmini returned to India to study further and gained admission into Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. However, even after scoring a distinction in her academics she recognised that her true passion was acting and so she left college to focus on her acting career full-time. She enrolled in various acting workshops and classes in order to skill herself.