Vaani Kapoor Calls Mandala Murders Character 'Liberating', Says 'I Didn't Care About Vanity' - EXCLUSIVE

Vaani

Kapoor joined Zoom for an exclusive roundtable interview as part of the Best Female Performances 2025 along with Shalini Pandey, Rasika Duggal, Tilotama Shome, and Nimrat Kaur. During the conversation, Vaani spoke at length about Netflix original crime thriller series Mandala Murders, which marked her OTT debut.

Unfiltered Vaani Kapoor..

While talking to Rudrani Chattoraj, Vaani, who played the dual role of a CBI officer and a physicist, expressed that she felt liberated while playing a different than usual character. She shared, "That was all Gopi (Puthran) sir's thought. I didn't intervene, I didn't give any inputs on how she (her character) should be. Except the sneakers part, I was like 'let her run, don't give her boots'. He saw her a certain way and I followed that brief and adapted to that. Its t-shits and pants and shirts and jeans. Its something I would see women dress up, in a job."ALSO READ: Taskaree The Smugglers Web OTT Release: Emraan Hashmi, Neeraj Pandey To Unveil Official Teaser Of Crime Thriller On...Talking about the styling part of, she added, "They rightly wanted to stay away from (glam) and not make it as if a Tiger 4 is happening or a Pathaan film happening. Its trying to create a real world and a real cop. I barely had any base and most of the time my hair was flowing off. I didn't, honestly, cared about the vanity, I enjoyed and it was kind of liberating. It felt good to look different, feel different."Vaani concluded, "I don't see as, 'Oh you can only perform if you are looking a certain way'. Its just about being true to the character you are being given."Watch the full interview here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKtpmSWB5c8

About Mandala Murders

Set in the fictional town of Charandaspur, Uttar Pradesh, Mandala Murders featured a mix of supernatural horror and psychological thriller elements. The series follows detectives Rea Thomas and Vikram Singh as they investigate ritualistic murders linked to a secret cult, the Aayastis, and a mythical entity called Yast.