India, July 17 -- When the first single, Nadhive, from the upcoming Telugu original film The Girlfriend came out, audiences were pleasantly surprised by the choice of dance form - contemporary - which both Rashmika Mandanna and Dheekshith Shetty performed to the best of their capabilities and received widespread praise. Rashmika, of course, is quite the accomplished dancer, but Dheekshith's talents were not widely known; at least to audiences outside of Karnataka.

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Dheekshith, as it turns out, is the winner of a dance reality show, having participated in Dance Karnataka Dance way back in 2017, along with his Nagini co-star Deepika Das. Back then he'd...