It's BAD PR
The thing is - you are expected to REMEMBER YOUR ROOTS when you move on to other industries
Sridevi for instance moved to Bombay full time in 1987 to focus on Hindi Films
Yet she still honored her call sheets in Telugu and Malayalam - she still referred to Balachander as the man who gave her the first break
Rashmika made 2 mistakes
I. Omission of the Kannada Industry 2019
In 2019, during a press conference, she said GEETHA GOVINDAM was her first start in the film Industry and later in 2023 during the Animal press conference said “I got my first break in Telugu”
She also referred to her Kannada Debut film - Kirik Party (325% returns by the way) as “Some Kannada Film by some Kannada Director”
This angered Kannada fans
Fans like deference
Tamil fans like Shivarajkumar saying he went to college in TN and Kannada fans like Rajini saying how he was a devout Annavaru fan (Annavaru = Rajkumar)
That Director was Rishabh Shetty of the Kantara fame 😁
II. Her Breakup with Shetty
She had a well publicized relationship with one of the shettys (Can't be the Kantara Director as he has a 9–10 year old son who came in Kantara Chapter I)
It was a break up
However because of the NATURE OF HER COMMENTS - She was painted as a GOLD DIGGER who abandoned the guy for someone else (Vijay Devarakonda). She was called DAGAAR which only my Kannadiga friends can tell, what it means (Not a good word I presume 😁)
Not that it has affected her career
She is among the most commercially successful actresses in India