Rakshita was next seen in Vijay Maddala's next directorial venture Green Signal, where she appeared alongside newcomer Revanth, though the film garnered negative reviews. In early 2013, she had also signed on to appear in the Tamil film, Poriyaalan alongside Harish Kalyan, written by Manimaran. During production, the scope of the film became larger after it was announced that Director Vetrimaaran had chosen to invest in the venture as a co-producer. She won positive reviews for her performance, and the film had a moderate run commercially. The Actress then went on to sign another Tamil project, Prabhu Solomon's directorial venture Kayal, in which she plays the title role. The Director decided to rechristen her as Anandhi from Rakshita for the film, and she was selected after auditioning twice before impressing Solomon. In the film, she portrayed a young village girl who goes searching for her lover, only to be caught up in the midst of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and upon release, won critical acclaim for her portrayal. Rediff.com noted she "was the perfect choice" and that she "seems so ordinary, so real, that you find yourself rooting for her compelling love", while Sify.com wrote she delivered "a truly excellent performance". Likewise, a critic from The Hindu noted "fresh-faced Anandhi looks lovely, and she performs pretty well too", while the Actress went on to be nominated for several Best Debut Actress awards for 2014, including at the Vijay Awards.