Naina Puttaswamy is in high demand

Bengaluru: She runs around with her camera, taking this picture and that, being excited as she always is. If you didn’t know better, you’d think Naina Puttaswamy is a photographer.

“I love taking pictures,” says the sandalwood actress as she wraps up the day’s shoot of Chitte Hejje. She not only plays the lead in this popular Kannada daily soap as Nethra, but is all excited about her big break alongside Puneet Rajkumar and Trisha in the remake of  the Telugu blockbuster Dookudu.

“They are both experienced, successful and great to work with,” she says about her co-stars. “Puneet is a no-nonsense, no attitude kind of a guy,” she adds. Ask her about her new bestie in tinsel town, Trisha, and she lights up.

“She’s great fun to be around,” she says about getting along like a house on fire with Trisha at their recent shoot in Barcelona. Barcelona, she says, was a dream for her considering how much she loves to travel. “Even if not international, I make sure I go on a nature retreat whenever I can make the time,” she says. 

From being a contestant on the Kannada reality show hosted by Kiccha Sudeep, Pyate Hudugi Halli Life and winning it, to starring in several films and TV soaps, Naina has come a long way.

“Offers rained down upon me once I was done with the reality show.” And there has been no stopping her since. She went on to star alongside Radhika Pandit and Yogi in Alemari. She also played the lead opposite Rakesh Adiga in Ayodhyapuram. “Gharshane was the icing on the cake,” she says about playing a cop alongside Malashri. “Since I’m a tom boy, I slipped into the role quite comfortably,” she says.

But she agrees that acting for television is more challenging than films. “It’s not as crisp,” she says. “You have to sustain your expression for a long time and there’s no one to prompt you,” she adds. When she’s doing neither, she loves to unwind with her pooches, Gooch, Ginger and Purdi. “The little Pomeranian is quite special as she has followed me from my time on the reality show,” she says about Purdi.

For this city girl, being from a non-filmy background is not a bad thing. “I believe everyone has an actor in them. For me, it just comes quite naturally,” she says but adds, “If not an actress, I’d have been an athlete or a yoga instructor.”

As she prepares for another day of shooting for Chitte Hejje slated for a June release, she talks about the future ahead. “I play a not so glamourous role on the TV soap and I’ve played a cop too. That’s a wide range to start with,” she says adding that she can adapt to characters.