The following year, Genelia appeared in the 2008 Telugu romantic thriller "Mr. Medhavi", in which she portrayed the role of a student from Canada. The movie was successful, with Rediff.com complimenting her performance saying, "Genelia is her effervescent self – full of joie-de-vivre and lights up the screen." She made her Kannada debut in "Satya in Love" the same year. Later, she was cast in a leading role in "Santhosh Subramaniam", a Tamil remake of "Bommarillu". The film also turned out to be rather successful as its predecessor. Sify described Genelia's portrayal as "the soul of the film" and the film's "biggest strength", however Rediff.com described her character as "appears a little too good to be true."